??Thanos And Infinity Stones Won’t Appear In ?’Guardians of the Galaxy 2?,’ Confirms James Gunn

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 has already started production and while we will be getting some official casting news within the next several days, one particular character will not be appearing in the movie – Thanos. The villain, who will be the main antagonist in Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 & 2, had a quick cameo in the first Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014 and has been a presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2012, when he appeared in a stinger in the mid-credits of Joss Whedon’s The Avengers.

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“Thanos will not appear in Vol 2. No,” director James Gunn confirmed in a Facebook Q&A. “As I’ve said before, Thanos isn’t in this movie. I think he’s gonna have a little bit to do and say when it comes to certain wars and infinity. We’ve got other fish to fry in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. We’re not really so much about the Infinity Stones in Guardians 2. Is that a spoiler? It’s not really a thing.”

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Thanos not appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is indeed upsetting, for a number of different reasons. For one, Thanos (also known as the Mad Titan) simply has not had a whole lot of screentime in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Technically, the villain has only had three appearances in the Marvel movies, one in 2012, one in 2014, and one last time in the mid-credits of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Thanos is supposed to be the ultimate villain, the endpoint that all of these marvel characters have been building towards since the very first Iron Man movie in 2008. Because of that, it is very important that the character, being played by Josh Brolin, holds a strong presence and feels like a genuinely intimidating, grave threat to the Marvel heroes. But with his limited screentime, it may be hard to pull that off.

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Thanos not appearing in Vol. 2 won’t be the only upset for comic book fans, since Gunn also revealed that the Infinity Stones won’t be playing a role in the sequel either. In the first Guardians, the Power Stone, which holds the power to destroy an entire planet, was being held by the film’s villain, Ronan the Accuser, played by Lee Pace. So far, the Reality Stone, Mind Stone, and Space Stone have appeared in the Marvel movies, with two more that need to appear. Hopefully, one of them, most likely the time stone, will appear in Doctor Strange this November – which may end up being the Eye of Agamotto.

“In this film, the Eye is a very important relic that can be quite dangerous if used in the wrong hands, because it has the ability to do any number of things, the most dangerous of which is, it can sort of manipulate probabilities,” Marvel’s Kevin Feige told Entertainment Weekly. “Which is also another way of saying, ‘screw around with time’ — which is part of our story.” And hopefully, Thor: Ragnorok will feature the other Infinity Stone.

Josh Brolin shared an amusing story with Cinemablend, about something he did in preparation to play Thanos.

“When I was doing Sicario, up the street from where I rented a house there was a comic book store. And I walked into the comic book store wanting to get more information on Thanos, and not wanting to call Kevin Feige with ‘Hey man, can you send me more stuff?’ And I walked in there and they freaked. Dude, I’ve never seen that kind of reaction. I’ve never seen that reaction. It was like, ‘Uhuhuhuhuh.’ Freaking out! And I was like, wow, this means so much to some people!”

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 opens in theaters on May 5, 2017. Avengers: Infinity War Part I and Avengers: Infinity War Part II are due out in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

[Image via Marvel Studios]