It looks like Guardians of the Galaxy is on track to help flesh out a broader, more villainous story line than its Avengers related cohorts.

Often cited as the odd child of Marvel's Phase Two, many fans have been wondering just how the James Gunn film will fit into a cinematic universe previously dominated by tales of the Avengers members. Recent discussion regarding the end credits scene of Thor: The Dark Word and the return of Thanos has helped to flesh out Guardians purpose in the overarching Marvel plot.

According to writer/director Gunn Thanos defiantly has a part to play in Guardians.

"Thanos is a character in our movie. ... He works with Ronan," Gunn explained to Crave Online. "In my movie Ronan works for Thanos, and Ronan is the main bad guy in our film."

Meanwhile, Kevin Feige, Marvel Studio's president of production, promised Empire that Thanos' involvement will be "more than the one turn-around-and-smirk."

However, the actual actor behind the villain has yet to be announced. Damion Poitier provided a brief performance as Thanos for The Avengers but Screen Crush seems fairly certain that he will not be reprising the role.

Guardians will also feature yet another interesting persona in the form of The Collector (Benicio Del Toro). As shown by post-credit scene from Thor: The Dark World, The Collector is working to collect the Infinity Gems, one of which is the Tesseract that Thanos was so interest in during The Avengers, according to Screen Crush.

Whether or not Thanos and The Collector are in league or at odds has yet to be revealed.

Guardians of the Galaxy will hit theaters Aug. 1, 2014.