As you all know Avengers 2 is set to start filming in February 2014 and is set to take place in India and South Africa. It serves as the sequel to the Avengers 2012 film and as the conclusion of MCU Phase 2.
For the new recruits, Joss Whedon is adding both Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, two siblings from the X-Men comics that serve as the son and daughter of Magneto. Even though Quicksilver is being used for X-Men Days of Future Past, Whedon still intends to use him
Now as for the villains of the sequel, Thanos is confirmed to be saved for last Avengers and Marvel Cinematic Universe Film which means that he will use a different villain and sure some of you are thinking Kang, Count Nefaria, MODOK, Grandmaster, Galactus, or Ultron, but none of those villains are gonna fit and besides, instead of going off topic, we should focus on sticking with what fits into the Marvel Cinematic Universe that does not go turning it into a chaotic fantasy. Plus after Thanos had learned that the Avengers had been responsible for foiling their attack on Earth, Thanos is willing to test Nick Fury's initiative by assembling a group of villains who are enemies of the Avengers that have survived their encounter with them. This group of villains are called the Masters of Evil
They are originally lead by Baron Zemo, the masters were formed to help Zemo with his goals and to help eachother defeat the Avengers one by one. But here in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Zemo wasn't confirmed so someone else is going to lead them. With Crossbones confirmed to appear in Avengers 2 and another after Captain America the Winter Soldier, he is sure to be a member of the gang but not the leader. The leader of the Masters of Evil would have to be someone who would possess the same material similar to the scepter he gave Loki which possesses mind control abilities, and as it was powered by the tesseract, it also projects energy laser blasts and tesseract also possesses the power of disintegration. Both disintegration and influence are powers used by another major supervillain who serves as Iron Man's arch enemy and is exactly who we are expecting Joss Whedon to be using as the main villain for the Avengers sequel:
The Mandarin/Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley)
It is true that the Mandarin was not who we were expecting all because of the twist that Kevin Feige violated the character with got everyone confused and slandered his name onto Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) who certainly does not look like the character or use power rings like the Mandarin does and that is what really got everybody really upset. Fortunately since Ben Kingsley's character is still alive, there is still hope that Joss Whedon will bring him back as the more proper villain from the comics and by proper I mean power rings that emit magic. Afterall, Tony Stark at the end of Iron Man 3 said "We create our own demon and since Killian created Trevor as the Mandarin and made him take the fall for the explosions which led the guy into being arrested for the crime which really gives us a good reason why he would eventually become the villain. If Thanos is to be the one to assemble the Masters of Evil then he's the one that will give Trevor the rings to make him become the real and traditional Mandarin we all know respectively from the comics and with the rings, Mandarin will use them to take back what he had lost from his drug addictions and lead his new allies into battle against the Avengers and with are Crossbones (Frank Grillo), Abomination (Tim Roth), and the mystery villain from Thor the Dark World, assuming that it will be Kurse (Adewale -Akinnuoye-Agbaje). Kurse was a servant to Malekith the Accursed until the lord of the Dark Elves betrayed him while he is fighting Thor, and in a bid to destroy the Thunder God orders that a pitfall beneath the two be opened.
With a lineup of 4 villains in the MCU group, the group will do and stay tuned for further announcements