The Thor 2 end credits scene was confusing if you’re not familiar with Marvel lore, mirroring that of the end credit scene from the first Thor .
The first seed of this end credits scene began back with Captain America: The First Avenger . The object that Red Skull was after was unnamed at the time, but in The Avengers , it had come to be known as the Tesseract. This particular object was just one of six in the universe, which together, grant the power of a god.
Remember at the mid-credits scene from The Avengers when Thanos made his appearance? He’s after those six items, also known as the Infinity Stones, in order to complete the Infinity Gauntlet and become supreme ruler of the universe.
Thanos is apparently going to make his big debut in Guardians of the Galaxy , and the item at the center of Thor 2 ‘s end credits scene is part of the buildup. The very plot behind Thor: The Dark World is actually centered around it as well, a mysterious dark substance known as the Aether .
When Volstagg and Sif were talking about the Aether at the end of Thor: The Dark World , you might have noticed Sif saying, “The Tesseract is already on Asgard. It would not be wise to keep two Infinity Stones so close together.”
Aether is what was in that box that Volstagg and Sif gave to the big guy in the Thor 2 end credits scene. The big guy in question is The Collector, or Taneleer Tivan. You can bet that The Collector will appear again in Guardians of the Galaxy as Thanos forces him to hand it over. However, what he says after they hand it to The Collector makes us wonder if he isn’t secretly working with Thanos:
“One down, five to go.”
This means that four other Infinity Stones are still at large, so now it’s a question of where they will pop up in future Marvel films. With Iron Man most likely out of sequels, this leaves possibly Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor 3 to deal with the Infinity Stones. Only Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige knows for sure.
Of course, with Ant-Man being planned as a heist movie, as previously reported by The Inquisitr , it could be that Hank Pym could be trying to get one of the Infinity Stones away from someone working with Thanos.
Now you know what the Thor 2 end credits scene was actually about, and you might understand what’s going on behind the scenes in the Marvel cinematic universe storyline.