Moviegoers who made the mistake of leaving during the end credits of "Thor: The Dark World" missed out on an important clue. Also, the ending of the movie makes the sequel a foregone conclusion.

In the interviews before "Thor: The Dark World" opened in theaters, Marvel President Kevin Feige kept fending off the questions about another Thor sequel. They hinted that is depended on TTDW's success. However, the ending of the movie seems to hint that Thor will start another chapter of his life. As with the box-office angle, the seventh Marvel movie (dating from 2008's Iron Man) is on course to join blockbuster territory along with most of its predecessors. There was really not much doubt.

As Marvel has done in the past, they keep the ball rolling with the mid-credits scene. This movie is not about to buck that trend. The Collector, a cosmic Marvel character who will be extensively featured in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie played by Benicio del Toro.

Spoilers Ahead!

The scene depicts Asgardians Sif (Jaimie Alexander) and Volstagg handing over the Aether to a being known as The Collector. Why would they hand over such an important and powerful relic? They reason that it would be "unwise" to keep to "infinity stones" so close together. Apparently, the other Infinity Stone is the Tesseract, brought to Asgard by Thor at the end of The Avengers Movie.

Was that a wise decision? It depends on The Collector. The devious "one down, five to go" statement didn't sound so encouraging. (There are six Infinity Stones)

Is The Collector playing Pokemon (gotta catch them all) with the Infinity Stones? In the comics, they are called "infinity gems" or "soul gems" but it's confusing because one of them is a soul gem (the others are mind, space, reality, time and power). Anyone who takes possession of all six will be invincible. They can be placed in the Infinity Gauntlet (the glove like artifact in Odin's vault).

Thanos is after the gems, and it appears, The Collector is, too. Are they working together? Or is The Collector preventing Thanos from getting it?

Marvel can only say: See you next year at "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and  "Guardians of the Galaxy."