Reporting in from SXSW, Joss Whedon has once again confirmed that neither Skrulls nor the Kree will be making any kind of appearance in Marvel’s The Avengers when it debuts in theaters this May. He offers a couple of reasons why they aren’t included. Mainly the fact that both alien races, so popular in the Marvel Universe, have far too much backstory to explore in a two hour film that has seven lead characters.

Here is Joss Whedon’s statement on the aliens we’ve glimpsed in the most recently released trailer and the Lego sets.

“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…I will say only this: It is not the Kree or the Skrulls.

Those two aliens are Marvel mainstays and have enormous back stories. 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.”

It has long been speculated that Walt Disney Pictures does not own the rights to use The Kree nor Skrulls in this particular franchise, because those rights are with another studio. It is believed that the aliens in Marvel’s The Avengers are a generic alien race based off both the Kree and Skrull, changed just enough as to not cause any legal issues.

It has been rumored that either the Kree, a scientifically and technologically advanced militaristic alien race, or Skrulls, an alien race of shape shifters bent on taking over the Earth, will appear in the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot at 20th Century Fox.

Marvel’s The Avengers comes to theaters May 4th, 2012 and stars Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Robert Downey Jr., Cobie Smulders, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson. The film is directed by Joss Whedon. (Source)