Joss Whedonâs The Avengers capped off a great run for Phase One of Marvel Studiosâ film slate, and now Phase Two of the studioâs comic book film line-up is taking shape. Filming on Iron Man 3 is winding down, production on Thor: The Dark World has commenced, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier is set to get underway next March. That leaves Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers 2 as the final two films of the Phase Two lineup, with Edgar Wrightâs Ant-Man a slight possibility should he be able to get production started next year.
Ever since audiences were caught a glimpse of that big purple alien guy in the tag for The Avengers, fans have been pondering a major arc for the villain Thanos in further films. As with everything Marvel we have no firm confirmation of how the character wlll come into play in Phase Two, but itâs been assumed that heâll make his appearance in one of the later films of the slate. Now solid confirmation is being claimed that the baddie will pop up in Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers 2. Hit the jump for more.
For those that are a little confused, let me back up a bit. Thanos was the big guy seen at the very end of The Avengers smirking at the Chitauri leaderâs warning that to face off against the humans would be âto court Death itself.â In the comics, Thanos is a massive threat to The Avengers and pretty much any and all superheroes. Heâs also obsessed with Death, a literal being, and seeks out the powerful Cosmic Cube (called the âTesseractâ in the films) and wields the Infinity Gauntlet, which basically grants Thanos an insane amount of power.
Marvel is venturing into space opera territory with Guardians of the Galaxy, and James Gunn recently confirmed that heâll be writing and directing the ambitious feature. Many assumed that Thanos would have some presence in Guardians to set him up as the main villain in The Avengers 2; weâll see the superheroes face off against a number of antagonists in their own separate films, so something really, really bad needs to appear in order to necessitate the reassembling of The Avengers.
The folks over at Cosmic Book News have a source that claims to have confirmed with Thanos creator Jim Starlin at the Montreal Comic-Con that the character will indeed appear in both Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers 2. As a number of rumors have come and gone over the years, Marvel has taken a firm âno commentâ stance on all such rumblings until they announce things formally, so this isnât an official confirmation.  That said, itâs not exactly a stretch to imagine the character popping up in both films.
We likely wonât hear solid confirmation regarding the villain/plot of Guardians or The Avengers 2 for some time, but Thanos didnât appear at the end of The Avengers for nothing. Whedonâs tease will pay off in one way or another sometime down the road, and the final two films in Marvelâs Phase Two would be a solid arc for the character.
James Gunnâs Guardians of the Galaxy will hit theaters on August 1st, 2014, while Joss Whedonâs The Avengers 2 will open on May 1st, 2015.