WHEDON: Thanos was never the NEXT VILLAIN. Would love FURY on S.H.I.E.L.D. show.

Another day, another batch of Joss Whedon sound bites. Eh, I don’t care! I’m the speculation swine! I smack my lips all over the delicious morsels of news regarding Avengers 2. I am gluttonous, I hate myself, but I cannot stop.

Joss Whedon, the writer and director of both The Avengers and next year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, now explained more about the role of Thanos. He was “never meant to be the next villain” and was only teased to give fans a taste of how big this Marvel Cinematic Universe can really get.
Though Kevin Feige had previous alluded to Thanos being a threat further down the line (it’s confirmed he’ll play a role in Guardians of the Galaxy, which isn’t likely to tie in with Avengers: Age of Ultron), here’s what Whedon recently said to Total Film (via Comic Book Movie):

We have to stay grounded. It’s part of what makes the Marvel universe click – their relationship to the real world. It’s science-fiction, and Thanos is not out of the mix, but Thanos was never meant to be the next villain. He’s always been the overlord of villainy & darkness.

[Slashfilm]

The Avengers: Age of Ultron director spoke with press at the Television Critics Association presentation of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and stressed that he would “love to have” Samuel L. Jackson make an appearance on the new ABC television series. Indeed, Whedon added that he would happily place phone calls to Jackson and other members of the Avengers cast to appear on S.H.I.E.L.D., if such requests made sense for the story.

“I’m not going to go begging,” he said, “and I’m not going to use up favors I need for The Avengers 2. As I say, the DNA of the show is the show. Those guys would be a delightful bonus, but we’re not building our arcs around them.”

“The good thing about the universe is that they’re superstars in that universe. So if they showed up, if they overbalanced it slightly, that would actually make sense,” Whedon said of the star-power the Avengers characters would bring to any possible S.H.I.E.L.D. appearances. “That’s how people would react to them in the universe of the show, so I don’t think that’s a problem. I do think it’s a problem if you have them too regularly and people are just wondering, ‘When do I get to see a movie star again?’ Instead of concentrating on these guys.”

 [Spin-Off]