Marvel movies are known for their after-credits surprise. In Iron Man, Nick Fury showed up to announce The Avengers. Tony Stark was in The Incredible Hulk to talk up “the team”. Thor’s hammer showed up in Iron Man 2, and both Thor and Captain America set up things for The Avengers.

Well, the big team movie has had its world premiere and people have seen it. Word is unbelievably positive about it with some of the harshest critics on comic book movies calling it the best one ever made, even better than fanboy darling The Dark Knight. While the after credits scene was not yet filmed at the time of the premiere, which is how Marvel does things…the Nick Fury scene wasn’t on Iron Man at the time of its premiere, there is a scene in the middle of the credits with a surprise character that sets up The Avengers 2.

The credits are said to be a bit like Thor’s with a flying starfield where the major credits are shown prior to the main roll. This character’s scene appears after those credits but before the long rolling text. And who appears in this scene? Prepare to change your underwear…

Cloak Guy: “Master! Loki has failed…” Thanos: “Now it’s time for us to take things into our own hands

Thanos, the Mad Titan, and the focus of one of the most epic Marvel events ever looks to be the villain in the second Avengers movie.

Marvel has been setting Thanos up since Thor as the Infinity Gauntlet was an artifact in Odin’s vault. People say The Avengers hits an epic level we’ve never seen in a comic book movie before and the trailers don’t even scratch the surface of how awesome it gets. If they bring Thanos in for the sequel, they may go to an even larger scale than most fanboys can handle.