As it turns out, the Avengers had good reason to fear Thanos.
Marvel Studios released the first trailer for Avengers: Infinity War Wednesday, after first sharing the footage during the D23 Expo in July. The teaser opens with various heroes saying, "There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if we could become something more, so when they needed us, we could fight the battles that they never could."
Enter Thanos (Josh Brolin), who's ready to destroy the world. "Fun isn't something one really considers when restoring balance to the universe," the villain says. "But this does put a smile on my face."
As clips show Earth's Mightiest Heroes getting their asses handed to them, Thanos says, "I know what it's like to lose. You feel so desperately that you're right. Yet you fail all the same. Run from it. Destiny still arrives."
Thanos' goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones and use them to inflict his evil will on all of reality. As he wages war on the world, look out for glimpses of Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Rocket the Racoon (Bradley Cooper), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), a bearded Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Spider-Man (Tom Holland), a blond Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Salana), Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and other characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thor's brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is also back, briefly shown holding the Tesseract in the middle of destruction.
Directing duo Anthony Russo and Joe Russo returned to helm Avengers: Infinity War, which also features Vision (Paul Bettany), War Machine (Don Cheadle), The Collector (Benico Del Toro), Groot (Vin Diesel), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Okoye (Danai Gurira), Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Wong (Benedict Wong), Shuri (Letitia Wright) and more.
Avengers: Infinity War arrives in movie theaters May 4, 2018, followed by Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 6, 2018), Captain Marvel (March 8, 2019) and the untitled Avengers 4 (May 3, 2019).
Next up is director Ryan Coogler's Black Panther, in theaters Feb.16, 2018.