THE AVENGERS Empire Magazine Covers, Photos and Villain Rumors

Empire Magazine has unveiled a collection of magazine covers from The Avengers, featuring the lead characters from the Joss Whedon-directed Marvel film.

Check out the covers, and a few new photos, below.

Inside the magazine is an interview with Kevin Feige, who spoke about the rumored villains in the film, denying that The Skrulls will make an appearance.

“Who said they were aliens?” he teases. Beings from the Nine Realms, then, ventures Empire? “Closer…It's not Skrulls, I've been clear about that. Beyond that, we want to hide it. The identity of the alien race is not impactful. It exists in the comic books, but we're not setting up the Kree-Skrull war or anything like that.”

There was also a rumor that Red Skull has a cameo.

“Was Skull vaporised at the end of the movie, or thrust into another realm?” asks Feige. “That remains to be seen. It would be fun to see Skull in future, but he's not in this one.” Whedon though is a little more circumspect when Empire confronts him. “I do have a comment on that,” he says, before pulling a move worthy of Loki himself. “It's…oh, you're breaking up!”

Synopsis:

Continuing the epic big-screen adventures started in Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvel's The Avengers is the superhero team up of a lifetime.

When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as SHIELD, finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

The ensemble cast includes Chris Evans (Steve Rogers), Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff), Clark Gregg (Agt. Phil Coulson), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), with Tom Hiddleston (Loki Laufeyson), and Stellan Skarsgard (Professor Erik Selvig) all star in The Avengers which will be released nationwide on May 4th, 2012.