We saw Thanos' devious grin at the end of The Avengers, but based on what we know, we won't see the purple-hued villain in the upcoming Marvel sequel. Instead, our next taste of the Mad Titan comes in Guardians of the Galaxy, director James Gunn's 2014 space adventure. He's not the central villain, but it sounds like he plays a key role.
"Thanos is a character in our movie," Gunn told Crave Online. "He works with Ronan. In my movie Ronan works for Thanos, and Ronan is the main bad guy in our film."
We already know who is playing Ronan the Accuser: Lee Pace, late of Pushing Daisies, fixture in the Hobbit trilogy as Thranduil, and once a contender for the lead Guardians role of Star-Lord. As for Thanos? The question of who is playing the Mad Titan remains very much up in the air.
One would assume we'll get an answer before too long, considering "Thanos is a character" in Guardians — but if he's a non-speaking character, as he was in Avengers, it's entirely possible that Gunn and Marvel will use a fill-in until the studio is ready to hire a big-name actor somewhere further down the line.
Guardians of the Galaxy hits theaters on Aug. 1, 2014.