Lee Pace Not Returning for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Sequel

Sorry, Lee Pace fans: 'Ronan' won't be making an appearance in the upcoming sequel to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. Or possibly in any other installments.

Director James Gunn confirmed that Pace's villain won't be in the upcoming sequel to Marvel's surprise hit of 2014 as part of a Facebook Q&A today, according to Entertainment Weekly.

"Who knows," Gunn said about the prospect of Pace showing up again. "But not in 2, no."

From Marvel, the studio that brought you the global blockbuster franchises of Iron Man, Thor, Captain Americaand The Avengers, comes a new team-the Guardians of the Galaxy. An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits-Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand-with the galaxy's fate in the balance.