Joss Whedon confirms no Skrulls or Kree in his Avengers

Here's one Avengers rumor we can finally put to bed. Joss Whedon has confirmed that the villains backing up Loki in his Avengers movie won't be the shape-shifting Skrulls or the Kree. So who were those sky-diving minions?

Whedon is still being mum on the identity of Loki's army, but he has decided to finally stamp out the alien rumors flying around the Internet:

"Those two aliens are Marvel mainstays and have enormous backstories," Whedon explained. "They have a big life of their own that just could not be contained in a film where I already had seven movie stars."

Even without such a large cast, Whedon says having the Skrulls in his movie would have been redundant:

"The Skrulls - they can shape change. That's a whole thing," he said. "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."

So with those two species out of the way, who will we be seeing pounding into Earth's mightiest heroes?

SXSW: Joss Whedon says 'The Avengers' villains are NOT the Skrulls or the Kree [EW via Comic Book Movie]