2. The Collector
Though Thor: The Dark World cuts to the end titles on a brilliantly devious note, what with Loki's new acquisition of power as he sits atop his father's throne, the credits don't last all that long before... wait, there's another scene before the now inevitable Marvel post-credits sequence? Yup: we join Sif and Volstagg as they take meet with a mysterious character named "The Collector," as played by a flamboyant, make-up clad Benicio Del Toro. The pair present the Collector with the contained Aether, explaining that the vaults of Asgard already contains the Tesseract, and they don't wish to put another item of such extensive power (an Infinity Stone) in the same place. The Collector agrees to keep it in his possession, and as they leave, mutters: "One down... five to go." So what has this got to do with anything? Well, die-hard Marvel fans will know that The Collector is a character set to appear in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe picture Guardians of the Galaxy - and this is the first true reference to the film that we've had in any MCU movies so far. How, exactly, this scene will lead into Guardians of the Galaxy isn't made clear, but it's understandable that Marvel have chosen to directly link the Thor series with Guardians of the Galaxy, given that they work in the same thematic territory - space, dimensions, portals, universal threat (you know what I mean). It's certainly exciting to see it starting to come together... especially since we now know what The Collector is looking for.