Fans have been wondering who will play The Mad Titan known as Thanos ever since he briefly popped up during the end credits sequence in Marvel's The Avengers. We finally got our answer last week, when Marvel Studios announced that Josh Brolin is playing the villain in Guardians of the Galaxy. But how much will we be seeing of this important character in Marvel's Phase Two adventure? Today, we have some new details about when and how Thanos will be popping up, which appears to be an homage to Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. Be warned, there may be mild spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy below, so read on at your own risk.

A new report from Vulture reveals that Thanos will pop up during the first act of Guardians of the Galaxy, in the form of a hologram, a possible nod to Emperor Palpatine's hologram appearance in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. The villain does show up later in person during a scene involving Thanos' underlings Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) and Nebula (Karen Gillan). Thanos is also referred to multiple times in the movie, regarding his familial ties to Zoe Saldana.

Guardians of the Galaxy also presents one of the other Infinity Stones that Thanos is trying to collect for his powerful Gauntlet, which are six gems that can manipulate Space, Mind, Soul, Reality, Time, and Power.

In the end credits scene of Thor: The Dark World, Benicio Del Toro, who plays The Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy, revealed that he has found one of the stones, a swirling Aether, as he proclaimed "One down, five to go." Guardians of the Galaxy will present the "Power Stone." While many fans speculated that the Aether was the "Power Stone," it is now believed to be the Reality stone. Although it hasn't been confirmed, the Tesseract from Marvel's The Avengers is believed to be the Space gem, and Loki's scepter may be the Mind stone.

It isn't known when Thanos will be popping up next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, since The Avengers have a new villain to square off against in next summer's Avengers: Age of Ultron.