Don't Expect To See Thanos In 'Avengers: Age Of Ultron'

The Marvel supervillain Thanos was first teased in the post-credits sequence for The Avengers, and his influence is felt in this weekend's Guardians of the Galaxy. But it'll be a while before we really get to know him better.

Kevin Feige confirmed that the Mad Titan is "not a part" of Avengers: Age of Ultron — though in typically coy fashion, he admits "nothing's definitive" at this point. Hit the jump for details.

Russ got the scoop from Feige at a recent press event for Guardians of the Galaxy. Feige got all cute when asked whether Thanos might crop up in Avengers: Age of Ultron:

He's not a part of Avengers 2. I think Thanos does what he wants, and shows up where he wants to, and I'm not going to tell him otherwise. You don't know exactly; smirking at the end of Avengers. By the way, we're still making Avengers 2, so nothing's definitive one way or the other, actually.

Feige backtracks a bit toward the end of his comment, and as he points out it's certainly possible that Marvel will switch some things up between now and 2015, when Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters. However, it's clear Thanos is not a big part of the movie. At most, he might get a cameo.

Not that that's so surprising. Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon has previously said that Thanos "was never meant to be the next villain" and that he wants to "save the big finale for the big finale" — hinting, perhaps, that Thanos will play a bigger role in Avengers 3.

Marvel hasn't formally announced a release date for Avengers 3 as of yet, but at the pace we're going it seems likely to land sometime around 2018. Meaning by the time Thanos and the Avengers have their big showdown — if indeed that's what Marvel has planned — it'll have been a good six years since he was first introduced.