It has been known since the mid-credits scene of the first Avengers movie in 2012 that Thanos is the “big-bad” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. The Mad Titan’s involvement has since seen him appear in Guardians of the Galaxy and the mid-credits scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron and will culminate in the villain facing off with the Avengers and their allies in the two Avengers: Infinity War movies at the end of Phase 3.

Those movies won’t indicate the end of the franchise as a whole, though. Assuming they aren’t a huge financial failure (which they won’t be), the MCU will continue into a fourth phase and someone will have to take over Thanos’ mantle. However, it will take a special kind of villain to replace him as the big-bad of the franchise. Let’s take a look at five who could.

Norman Osborn

For a lot of people (namely casual movie-goers), Norman Osborn is nothing more than a rich guy who becomes the Spider-Man villain known as Green Goblin. However, he is so much more than that – and, now that Sony and Marvel Studios have agreed a deal, he will undoubtedly appear in the MCU and could become a big player.

In the comic books, Osborn’s influence is such that he has been the main antagonist of a number of huge world-altering arcs, including the likes of Dark Reign and Siege.

He isn’t physically powerful enough to work alone against all of the heroes of the MCU but, if the movies were to follow past comic book stories, he could potentially create the evil alliance called the Cabal, he could form the Dark Avengers with nefarious intentions, or he could lead an all-out assault on Asgard with allies like Sentry/The Void in tow.

Essentially, Osborn would represent a very different kind of villain – a human with bags of financial, political and emotional influence – who could use the service of others to be his muscle while operating in the background (the latter of which would be similar to Thanos).