Thor: The Dark World Post Credits Scenes Explained

This article contains spoilers for the upcoming Thor: The Dark World movie. While Thor: The Dark World won't open in the United States for over another week, Marvel Studios is releasing the movie this week overseas. British press have already screened the movie, so spoilers have already appeared on various online sites. As previously reported, Thor: The Dark World actually contains two different post credits scenes. The first post credits scene occurs about midway through the credits. In the mid-credits scene, Lady Sif and Volstagg bring "The Aether" to The Collector, who is played by Benicio Del Toro. When The Collector asks him why they are giving him "The Aether," Lady Sif and Volstagg respond that they already have the Tesseract in Odin's vault on Asgard, and it would be unsafe to keep two Infinity Stones in one place. After Lady Sif and Volstagg leave, The Collector says, "One down, five to go." Of course, The Collector is set to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy, so this scene serves to link Thor: The Dark World with Guardians of the Galaxy. Internet speculation suggests that Marvel could be setting up a showdown between Thanos and both the Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers in Avengers 3. When Screenrant got the opportunity to ask Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige if the Thor 2 mid-credits sequence was clear indication of a lead up to an Infinity Gauntlet War, Feige said, "I don't know that I would spell it out that clearly, necessarily, but certainly fans of the comics could surmise that all of this is leading somewhere. That Joss' decision to have Thanos turn around and smile to the audience at the end of Avengers – it was always the plan to show that the Tesseract was indeed an infinity stone, as was the Aether. A lot of that will tie first into Guardians of The Galaxy which comes out next year and then where it goes from there we'll see… I would not necessarily attribute them based on colors, because you're close but you're not 100% right on what each one is. …[but] yes, the MacGuffin of Guardians certainly plays into MacGuffins from the past." The second Thor: The Dark World post credits scene actually takes place after the credits have completely run. In the final scene, Jane Foster is back on Earth and depressed that Thor isn't with her. Then, Thor shows up on her doorstep, and the two embrace in a passionate kiss. Also, a beast from the Jotunheim made it to Earth during the final battle in the film. In a little bit of comic relief, the beast from the Jotunheim is shown chasing a flock of birds across an empty lot. While part of the purpose of the final scene is just to end things with a laugh, it also establishes that Thor is back on Earth, which helps lay the groundwork for his next appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron.