It has been spoiled enough that Loki is not the main antagonist in "Thor: The Dark World." That distinction belong to Malekith. Director Alan Taylor compares the villain to a Star Trek nemesis and teases about Thanos, the mystery villain in "The Avengers."

Malekith The Accursed is played by Christopher Eccleston (Dr. Who) and is the leader of the Dark Elves in the Norse mythology based universe. In an interview with Screenrant, director Alan Taylor shares his insights on the character: "It was clear early on that we were going to be dealing with the Dark Elves and that Malekith was going to be our guy. And let's see. I'm trying to remember the process by which it evolved. He's very much on a mission of vengeance and reclaiming what is rightfully his. That's not an unfamiliar device. You know, early on, I started thinking, like he's got something in common with Roy Batty (Blade Runner) who had a righteous mission that you sort of sympathized with. Had a kind of humanity, even though he was an evil bastard. And obviously, his name's escaping me, but the bad guy in J.J. Abrams' wonderful Star Trek."

He continues with the characters' deeper motivations:  I think  two things happened. His mission became grander and grander, and we sort of invented a time scale for where he's been. And what his backstory is, that make it big enough for Thor. I think other superheroes can fight bad guys in Gotham City or can fight bad guys in Metropolis or whatever, but Thor is part of this epic thing he's also got going on. Our villains haven't been around for 5,000 years. They've been pissed off since the Big Bang so there's a kind of scale. Odin's father had to fight them.

Again, it's a history lesson. It's a scale to what his mission is, but also, on the other hand, trying to make it intimate. It's important that you have a - you saw him with Adewale, who's playing Algrim, who later becomes Kurse. It's important for me to give an intimate relationship, so you felt kind of brotherly - you know, you've got Thor and Loki, and you've got Algrim and Malekith so you have some chance for a kind of an intimate connection. So it's not just mustachioed villains blowing things up. "

The Avengers teaser on Thanos will also be visited in the sequel. The focal point is that the Tesseract is in Asgard..it was not revealed whether Malekith was trying to take that, but the Thanos inference will be explored. The groundwork is laid for "Thor 3."