Another Major Villain May Be Starring in THE AVENGERS

This article is going to get deep into possible spoilers for Joss Whedon’s The Avengers.  Since I know a lot of you are trying to steer clear from spoilers and very little about the film has been released, I’m going to include this news after the jump.  There will be spoilers about a possible new villain as well as villains that have been mentioned previously, but you may not have seen that news.  I’ll also be making mention of what happens after the credits in Thor, so again, steer clear if you want to stay in the dark.  Sorry for the run-around, but we’re trying to be considerate of those who want to stay spoiler-free.

Hit the jump to find out about a major villain who could be joining the fray.  The Avengers stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Cobie Smulders, Scarlett Johansson, Clark Gregg, and Samuel L. Jackson.  The film opens in 3D on May 4, 2012.

Okay.  Here comes the potential spoilers.  Seriously, stop reading if you’re going to be bothered by them.

Those who have seen Thor and stayed through the credits have correctly surmised that the villain in The Avengers will be Loki (Tom Hiddleston).  We previously learned that possible plot of the film could involve Loki using the Cosmic Cube (what you saw in the case in the post-credits scene fromThor) to call down an alien race known as the Skrulls.  However, the villainy in the film may extend beyond a Norse God and a malevolent alien race bent on conquering the Earth.

Latino Review is reporting that the Mad Titan, Thanos will also be in the film.  So who is Thanos?  Here’s how LR breaks down the character:

Debuting in the Bronze Age of comic books, the character has featured in over three decades of Marvel continuity and a self-titled series. The character’s name is a derivation of Thanatos, the personification of death and mortality in Greek mythology.  One of his more prominent storylines to date—the Infinity Gauntlet series—portrayed him as a mad cosmic tyrant bent on slaying half of all sentiences existing then in Marvel’s multiverse in order to appease the Marvel Universe’s actual (and more powerful) embodied personification of Death in an attempt to win its love.

What makes this news convincing is that this isn’t the first time we’ve heard about the Infinity Gauntlet.  If you blinked then you probably missed it in Odin’s vault, but Marvel brought the item to last year’s San Diego Comic-Con alongside Mjolnir and Captain America’s shield.

Latino Review won’t say how Thanos figures into the movie and I’m grateful for that.  However, it’s clear that Marvel is going bigger than we previously imagined.  Not only will The Avengers be going up against a Norse god and angry shapeshifting aliens, but now they have to contend with a titan who has faced down Silver Surfer and even regarded himself as the god of Death.  There are few villains in the Marvel Universe more powerful than Thanos and it will be interesting to see how he figures into the plot when it seems like the only Avenger that would have a chance against him is Thor.

Here’s an image of the Infinity Gauntlet from Comic-Con:

And here’s a look at it from Odin’s Vault: