Catching up with Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director James Gunn on the red carpet at Marvel Studio’s Thor: The Dark World premiere, CraveOnline managed to score a few quotes about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“Thanos is a character in our movie,” says Gunn regarding the big bad teased at the end of Marvel’s The Avengers. “…He works with Ronan. In my movie Ronan works for Thanos, and Ronan is the main bad guy in our film.”

Ronan is set to be played by Lee Pace, although an actor for Thanos has not yet been named. Damion Poitier played the part in the post-Avengers tease under heavy prostheses. As was Thanos in that sequence, Guardians of the Galaxy promises quite a lot of practical effects.

“We have a prison set that is 350,000 pounds of steel,” Gunn continues. “Our sets are enormous. Anybody who knows me knows I really love the mix of practical and CGI effects and I carried that over into this movie. We have tons and tons of practical effects… I can’t wait for people to see it because it’s astoundingly beautiful.”

Guardians of the Galaxy features an unlikely cast of characters who must team up in order to defeat a cosmic force of epic proportions. The August 1, 2014 release also stars Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Ophelia Lovibond, Benicio Del Toro, Karen Gillan, Djimon Honsou, Gregg Henry, Glenn Close and John C. Reilly.

You can check out CraveOnline‘s full video in the player below, but please be aware that it does contain some minor spoilers for Thor: The Dark World: