For the better part of the past two decades, Josh Brolin has been one of the biggest actors on the planet. He’s played one of the most nuanced Marvel villains, been nominated for all kinds of awards, and appeared in one great movie after another. However, it wasn’t always that way. Sure, Brolin arrived on the scene hot with The Goonies back in the ‘80s, but he sort of bounced around for the next 20 years before it all changed with one of the busiest years of his, or anyone else’s, career.
In 2007, Brolin went from being a steady and reliable supporting actor to one of the top stars in Hollywood. From Planet Terror to American Gangster to No Country for Old Men (one of the best 2000s movies), the second-generation star was on a whole different level, and we’re still feeling it.
Josh Brolin Was Far From A Leading Man In The ’90s And Early 2000s
great ‘90s movies like Flirting with Disaster and Mimic, Josh Brolin was far from a leading man in the final decade of the 20th century. The same can be said about the first half of the 2000s, as he gave great performances, but in forgotten movies like Melinda and Melinda and Milwaukee, Minnesota.
best movies about people ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it was the opposite for Brolin when he auditioned for the role of Llewelyn Moss in the Coen Brothers’ Best Picture Oscar winner. Each of his 2007 movies are great and all, but it’s his performance as a Texan stumbling upon a satchel of cash from a drug deal gone wrong that we still talk about nearly 20 years later.
I saw this movie in theaters either five or six times (both during its initial release and then when it was brought back ahead of the 2008 Oscars), and that number has grown exponentially since then. When I hear Brolin’s name, this (and a story about him getting arrested in my hometown while filming W) comes to mind. A character with a heavy conscious, few words, and a quest to survive, there was something the resonated with audiences.
Sure, people talk about Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh more than Moss, but that was a once-in-a-generation villain performance. Still though, Brolin’s calm, calculated, and somewhat sympathetic and ill-fated protagonist led to so many opportunities, immediately after and for years to come.
Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, Brolin’s portayal of the Mad Titan ushered in a new era of movie villains, much like his counterpart did in No Country for Old Men.
2025 movie schedule. After already appearing in one of 2025’s best horror movies (Weapons), he is gearing up to appear in the upcoming Netflix film, Wake Up Dead Man, and Edgar Wright’s adaptation of The Running Man, one of my most anticipated action flicks. And that’s just this year.
Before the end of the 2026 movie schedule, Brolin will reprise his role as Gurney Halleck in Denis Villeneuve’s massive Dune: Part Three (their fourth time working together), team up with Ridley Scott again for The Dog Stars, and star in the upcoming survival film, Whalefall. He just doesn’t stop…
It’s hard to imagine what Josh Brolin’s career (and Hollywood as a whole) would look like without his stacked 2007, but luckily, we live in a timeline where that’s just a hypothetical situation.