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Marvel Studios’ The Avengers was a massive success, and while most fans were left satisfied by the film as a whole, Marvel kicked off another whirlwind of anticipation with the film’s post-credits scene in which the comics supervillain Thanos was first glimpsed.  Speculation ran rampant that the cosmic baddie would be the foe in The Avengers 2, but that turned out to be false as Joss Whedon and Co. instead settled on the robot Ultron.  And so it appears that Marvel is playing the long game when it comes to Thanos, but his time may finally be drawing near as the character makes his first in-movie appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy, opening in theaters this weekend.  Josh Brolin was cast in the integral role, performing the facial performance capture for the character after principal photography on Guardians had already wrapped.  Though Thanos isn’t on screen for too long in the film, he certainly has a memorable presence.  Now, on opening day, Marvel has released the first official Thanos image from Guardians.

If you so desire, hit the jump to get a good look at the Big Bad in the first Thanos image from Guardians of the Galaxy along with an extended recap video of Marvel's Phase 1 & 2.  You can check out the film in theaters this weekend to see the character in action. 

While Thanos certainly has a presence in Guardians of the Galaxy, fans are still waiting to see Marvel fuflfill the sinister promise from the tag on The Avengers.  It’s usually pretty futile to try and guess what Marvel is going to do since we all just knew that Thanos would be the principal villain in Avengers 2, but now that the role is cast and the character has appeared in-movie, I would wager that things are building towards an explosive standoff between Thanos and our Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes in Avengers 3.  He may even return for a bigger role in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which was recently slated for release on July 28, 2017.

Anyway, the official Thanos image was revealed in the following Phase 1 & Phase 2 look-back video, which was initially shown at Comic-Con last weekend:

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Image via Marvel

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Image via Marvel