Aside from the central heroes, it's hard to guess which characters from the MCU are going to pop up in the AVENGERS movies. They had a "no girlfriends" policy on the first film (which Downey unceremoniously broke), and only Stellan Skarsgard showed up as THOR's Erik Selvig (recurring characters like Nick Fury and Clark Gregg don't count as they were already staples of the MCU). However, it's been confirmed that another Marvel side character is set to pop up in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON - Heimdall, the God of Vigilance, Protection, and Light.
Idris Elba let the news slip in an interview with The Telegraph, where he said, in no uncertain terms:
"I'm in AVENGERS."
He also confirms that Tom Hiddleston's Loki will be part of AGE OF ULTRON, which it seems will be making a stop in Asgard for a spell. We can also safely assume that Loki will be popping up in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR in a major role, as Thanos makes due on The Other's promise: "If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice we can't find you."
It was a given we'd be getting a lot more time with Loki in the films to come, but it's nice to see Heimdall getting a moment in the sun outside of the THOR movies. Everyone was bonkers about Hiddleston's performance in the first THOR, but as someone unfamiliar with Asgard and its denizens, I found Elba's Heimdall to edge out Thor's adopted brother as the most interesting character. Something about the cool-as-ice, quietly honorable watcher mixed with Elba's growling intensity instantly made me want more of the character, and a Heimdall appearance, no matter how brief, will certainly spice of AGE OF ULTRON at least a little. Then, presuming he doesn't kick the bucket, we can look forward to getting more time with him in THOR: RAGNAROK in 2017, and maybe even INFINITY WARS if those flicks are as cosmic in scope as we can assume they'll be.
More Heimdall and Loki can only be a good thing, right? Chime in below.
AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON wraps up Phase Two on May 1st, 2015.
