Since I could only pick one option I picked “yes”, but it was actually a combination of “yes” and “it was spoilered for me”
I had read it in previous threads, but if I didn’t read it I would have recognized him anyway because Thanos is tied with Venom as my favorite characters of all time
Okay, I didn’t know who either of the people in that scene were playing, though some of the Browncoats I were watching with were oohing and ahhing and going “Alexis!” 
And that wasn’t the ending stinger. That was a penultimate credits scene. The ending stinger was the shawarma place. 
Spoiler Nitpick
Death would refuse to speak directly to Thanos, because he was so far beneath him he was unworthy When he was wearing the Infinity Gauntlet, he became so powerful that she wouldn’t speak to him because he was so superior to her that it was her that became unworthy
I also thought “skrull” when I saw him. I’d completely forgotten about Thanos from my early comic-collecting days.
I gathered that it was someone associated with Death from the smile in response to “courting death”, but my comics-fu wasn’t strong enough to piece together exactly whom.
And a minor nitpick: He won’t be the villain of the next movie; he’ll be the villain in the next Avengers movie. There are sequels for the individual characters in the pipeline, too, which will presumably have lesser villains. It’s only when you get someone that’s a threat to the whole planet that you see all of the Avengers assemble.
I assumed it was the Marvel version of Darkseid. I learned his name when I got home and Googled.
Anecdotally, people around me who were not that comic book-versed but had seen the movies thought it the Red Skull. It did look a little like him but I knew it was someone else.
I knew at “…court Death”-the chins and the grin were just the icing on the cake.
I didn’t know until by comic book geek wife filled me in.
Ah. Thanks, everyone.
Pfft! Women, huh?
Re: the OP, yes, right away. “Oooh, Thanos! Awesome!”
Had I not been reading spoilers, I would not have known who he was. Even if I had known his name I still would not have understood who he was and what the importance of courting death was.
I actually said, out loud, “Thanos!” when I saw it in the theater.
I had a minor geekgasm.
Its going to be hard to make individual films for each character now. Say Captain America for instance, how can they have a genuine threat for him to face that will create any sort sort of tension, while at the same time that threat not being dangerous enough that he wouldn’t ask his new friend Ironman to help him out?
I don’t envy those scriptwriters at all.
Well, the comic book writers have managed it for the last 40 years, so it shouldn’t be that hard
I was also spoilered by reading the threads here. I probably would have figured it out or I may have been stuck sitting there thinking “Wait, I know I’ve seen him… who is that guy?”
I didn’t know, but my fiance did.
You’ve found a good woman.
psst. she’s got a fiance, not a fiancée.
And, yes, I recognized Thanos. Who I didn’t recognize were the Skrulls. Chitauri who? (edit: yes, I know they’re Ultimate stuff)
I disbelieve in you and your strange Frenchish verbiage.