During a press conference today in support of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige and Avengers director Joss Whedon addressed the connective tissue betweeen the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy corners of the universe.

When a reporter asked about the connections between films and which characters or concepts may have been back-burnered a bit in Phase Two to make sure they were where they needed to be for the second Avengers film, Feige and Whedon had a few examples."

"As we were putting the other Phase 2 movies together, Joss very much liked the idea and we honed in on that for him that Hulk and Hawkeye would be two characters that hadn't gotten very much exposure between the movies because he said he had very big plans for the two of them in this one," Feige said.

"The only thing I can think of is pulling Thanos out of Guardians of the Galaxy," added Whedon.

"That's true," admitted Feige. "There was going to be more Thanos, yeah."

"They needed to thread him in more gently," Whedon concluded.

Of course, it's no secret that Guardians director James Gunn felt the Thanos scene in the film was the hardest thing to shoot, so it's likely there wasn't a ton of resistance in playing him down a bit.