I believe Thanos is about to become the Uber-villain of the MCU. Not only will we see him in Avengers 2, imho, but probably bits and pieces of him in other MCU films, including Thor 2, Dr. Strange and GOTG.
Based on the interview Whedon gave on Thanos, its safe to say they're going the Star Wars route with The Avengers series. In Avengers 2, Thanos will either defeat the team or enslave Earth (or both) & leave the film in a very Empire Strikes Backish way. In Avengers 3, they'll figure out how to defeat him & he'll fall Palpatine-style. In A New Hope, the heroes won the battle, not the war. In The Avengers, the heroes won the battle not the war. In Empire, a hero fell (if only temporarily) & the others were left in peril. In Avengers 2, I'm sure someone will die & things will end bad for Mankind. The architecture for this series is perfect IMO. In 2018, if all goes as planned, we should be getting the ultimate showdown between Earth's Mightiest Heroes & The Mad Titan. Who knows where they'll go from there, if anywhere.
Based on the interview Whedon gave on Thanos, its safe to say they're going the Star Wars route with The Avengers series. In Avengers 2, Thanos will either defeat the team or enslave Earth (or both) & leave the film in a very Empire Strikes Backish way. In Avengers 3, they'll figure out how to defeat him & he'll fall Palpatine-style. In A New Hope, the heroes won the battle, not the war. In The Avengers, the heroes won the battle not the war. In Empire, a hero fell (if only temporarily) & the others were left in peril. In Avengers 2, I'm sure someone will die & things will end bad for Mankind. The architecture for this series is perfect IMO. In 2018, if all goes as planned, we should be getting the ultimate showdown between Earth's Mightiest Heroes & The Mad Titan. Who knows where they'll go from there, if anywhere.
I think he'll be saved for Avengers 3 and work behind the scenes up until then.
It depends on how much of Thanos we see during "Phase II."
Don't quote me on this, cuz it's just a hunch, but I think Feige is working on a theory that one megavillain is the "central" villain of each phase of the MCU. MCU Phase I was IM 1 & 2, Thor, CATFA, TIH, and Avengers. Loki was the "central villain" of that phase, but the real unifying thread there was, of course, the Avengers themselves assembling.
I believe MCU Phase II is shaping up to be Thor 2, IM 3, CA2, Avengers 2 and at least one unnamed movie (that may or may not be Ant-Man, Dr. Strange, TIH2, or GOTG as the likeliest candidates). I also believe, as I stated earlier, that Thanos will play small to middlin' roles in some, if not all, of these films, and culminate in a showdown in Avengers 2.
And yes, that means I don't believe in the trilogy theory. I do not believe for one second that Marvel Studios has set themselves up to be finite, to already have an "ending" planned for their grand business venture. MCU Phase III will take the Avengers in a new direction, *minus* Thanos, but there'll be a whole new story arc with a central villain set up for an Avengers 3 showdown. Could be a Kree-Skrull story arc, a Kang story arc, a MOE story arc, Inhumans, Atlantis Attacks, or something else.
After hearing Whedon talk about Thanos, I'm 99% sure he will be the primary threat during Avengers 2 & 3. Phase II will culminate with the first battle between Thanos & Midgard's heroes - which should have a much larger roster come 2015. By the end of Avengers 2, I expect Thanos to complete the gauntlet & close the film victoriously while The Avengers mourn a fallen comrade & the fall of their planet. Phase III can focus on the heroes taking back Earth & defeating Thanos, concluding the Phase with a final battle where an Avengers roster twice as big as that of the first film & that includes the GOTG defeats The Mad Titan once & for all. Whedon's going all the way with Thanos. The comic book issues he brought up, I own them. They're everything this series should be about. A war that begins with defending the planet & escalates to defending the universe. Its a battle against the ultimate evil; there's no way they'll bring him down in their first bout. They're gonna need help. Cosmic help.
From the interview with Feige and Whedon it sounded like Thanos was just a last minute addition by Joss. It wouldn't surprise me if he never shows up again and this is just written off as an easter egg for fans.
Not that I'm saying I don't want to see him. I'd love to see the MCU go full on cosmic and fulfill the promise that Green Lantern never did.
I never saw an Avengers franchise as a potential trilogy in the classical sense with a beginning, middle, and end. The franchise is indefinite. Members come and go. Characters change. I don't want it to be like X-Men where we get a Wolverine arc along with Magneto/Xavier's primary arc and it is a very self contained story. Even had they fleshed out the rest of the X-Men as necessary, it is still a trilogy for that set of characters. I guess you could somewhat equate that to Avengers, but I feel the presentations of the two should be completely different.
Members come and go. I always imagined even staple heroes like Thor and Iron Man to take a hiatus after a movie or so. Maybe Thor skips part 2 for example. Someone else fills in. The stories are completely distinct and stand alone by themselves. Not consistent with the classic trilogy in the sense.
Avengers should not present one story on one particular set of characters. It is an entire universe of characters. There is no need for repetition of characters and villains. Should there ever be a need for Avengers 4, 5, and 6 (no reason not to believe we can't get those movies at some point), and Thanos has already been dealt with, it is anti-climactic to say the least. Even X-Men saved Apocalypse. I don't think Thanos should be an overarching villain like the Sith. Let him remain in the background as an esoteric force that is hinted at but never sees major action until they decide to present that story. Hold it off until Avengers 3 at the very least. Or possibly a two part series for Avengers 3, 4 if they feel they cannot present that in one film and have little desire to tell any other story involving the Avengers at such a time.
I'm not a comic book reader, and am not versed on the comic book side of the Marvel Universe, but my question was - who will be the villian in Thor 2, and might we see Thanos in that movie?
The Chataurai Leader in Avengers told Loki that if he failed to bring them the Tesseract, there would be no place he could hide from them. So at the end of the movie, Loki and the Tesseract end up back in Asgaard. Could we even see Thanos in that movie?
Everyone is assuming he'll be the villian on Avengers 2, but just thought I'd ask because like I said...I don't know any better.
Also as a side note, who will be the villian in Cap 2?