You have to hand it to Marvel. Here we are less than two months to the May 4 release of The Avengers and we still don’t know for certain the race of aliens who the evil Loki (Tom Hiddelston) will use to try and take over Earth. There’s been lots of speculation and it keeps coming back to either one of the two biggest alien baddies in the Marvel Comics universe – the Skrulls or the Kree. Both races have been locked in a centuries-long war with Earth caught in the middle and the Avengers have often been called to defend the planet from both sides of the conflict. And that speculation has continued despite the denials from the studio and Avengers director Joss Whedon.
This weekend at the SXSW festival in Austin, Whedon once again dispelled the notion that those two alien races will be appearing in the upcoming movie in his usual light hearted manner –
It’s the Vulcans. I don’t know a lot about the Marvel universe, and I thought there were Vulcans. I know we’re going to get a lot of emails about that one.
Turning serious, he categorically denied that either of the alien races would appear in the film because their just isn’t enough room to deal with their story in a film already packed with characters.
I will say only this: It is not the Kree or the Skrulls. Those two aliens are Marvel mainstays and have enormous backstories. They have a big life of their own that just could not be contained in a film where I already had seven movie stars. The Skrulls — they can shape change. That’s a whole thing. I’ve already got Loki. He’s got magic. Once you got magic along with your Iron Man and your Black Widow — it’s a real juggling act.
Of course, that leaves the door open for plenty of other potential candidates, including one that Whedon had created for his run on Marvel’s Astonishing X-Men. That is, if he’s not throwing a big fat red herring out there to keep the film’s surprises tightly under wraps. We’ll find out the answer sometime between now and the film’s release on May 4.
Via Entertainment Weekly.
