Benicio Del Toro's 'Guardians of the Galaxy' role revealed? No 'The Avengers 2' for Joss Whedon without Robert Downey Jr.

The pace has definitely picked up as Marvel plunges further into their Phase Two plans. We've learned a great deal already about Joss Whedon's sequel to The Avengers, with the mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch likely to appear, assuming this little squabble with 20th Century Fox gets ironed out. And the casting for the offbeat Guardians of the Galaxy has been one of the more fascinating things to watch over the last couple of weeks. But now we've got updates on both films, one a strong rumor, and the other a rather bold pronouncement.

The latest addition to the Guardians of the Galaxy cast was Benicio Del Toro, and his role is still being kept a mystery. What we know is that he's signed on for multiple movies, making him a fairly important piece of the overall landscape. Sources over at CBM are saying that Del Toro's role is actually that of Taneleer Tivan aka The Collector, one of the powerful Elders of the Universe. You may recall that the character was mentioned when Ophelia Lovibond came aboard, with the speculation that she would be playing an assistant to his scheme of "collecting" rare objects and species. He's run afoul of the villain Thanos many times, so his inclusion in the film would make a lot of sense.  If Marvel has bigger plans for him, that suggests that a huge intergalactic crossover of sorts is in the works, and may stretch beyond The Avengers 2 and into Phase Three. Nothing's been confirmed, but this rumor at least has some legs under it.  Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Michael Rooker, Ophelia Lovibond, John C. Reilly, Enzo Cilenti, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, and Glenn Close, Guardians of the Galaxy begins filming soon for release on August 1st 2014.

Speaking of The Avengers 2, there's been a good deal of concern that Robert Downey Jr. was finished donning the Iron Man armor. Contract talks with him, and the majority of the film's cast, had turned ugly as they all demanded a larger piece of the piece of the pie. Considering the roughly $50M Downey was able to earn last time, while his co-stars were stuck in low ball deals, it got contentious pretty quickly. It's been suggested that Iron Man could be treated like James Bond, simply put another actor in the role and everything will be fine. Joss Whedon vehemently disagrees with that idea, and won't stick around if that's the route Marvel takes...

Whedon: "He is Iron Man. He is Iron Man in the way that Sean Connery was James Bond. I have no intention of making 'Avengers 2' without him, nor do I think I’ll be called upon to do that. I don't think it's in my interest, Marvel's interest, or his interest, and I think everything will be fine."

There's a good chance Downey is done making Iron Man solo films, but Marvel will do everything in their power to bring him back every time the Avengers get assembled. They won't risk their $1B franchise over a simple salary dispute.

If there's one thing that Whedon is known for it's crafting strong, female heroines for pretty much every project he's undertaken, and he gave us a little bit of that with Black Widow although she was a little underutilized. Last year he hinted at more female heroes joining the Avengers for the follow-up, and now he continues to push for that to happen. He even hints at possibly making a superheroine movie himself during a conversation with The Daily Beast...

Whedon: "Toymakers will tell you they won’t sell enough, and movie people will point to the two terrible superheroine movies that were made and say, You see? It can’t be done. It’s stupid, and I’m hoping The Hunger Games will lead to a paradigm shift. It’s frustrating to me that I don’t see anybody developing one of these movies. It actually pisses me off. My daughter watched The Avengers and was like, 'My favorite characters were the Black Widow and Maria Hill,' and I thought, Yeah, of course they were. I read a beautiful thing Junot Diaz wrote: 'If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves.....And back to the female-hero thing, I’m not going to let nobody do it. It doesn’t have to be me, but it could be."

He's off to a pretty good start by adding the Scarlet Witch to the roster, and the rumors of Carol "Captain Marvel" Danvers and The Wasp appearing have been floating around for awhile. My vote is that they not only add a female, but mix in a bit more ethnic diversity by using another Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, who now goes under the name of Pulsar. Not only was she a member of  the Avengers, she was their leader for a time.


The Avengers 2 is still a long ways off, due to open on May 1st 2015.