'Avengers: Infinity War': Thanos Rehearses for Galactic Conquest in First Behind the Scenes Photo

Now that the Civil War is over, the countdown is on to the Infinity War. And while the Avengers may be disassembled at the moment, their nemesis is readying for the fight. Yes, Thanos is in rehearsals for his big Marvel Cinematic Universe moment.

The dynamic directing duo of Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War) are in preproduction on Avengers: Infinity War, and that includes putting the Mad Titan through his paces. The Russos took to Facebook today to post this photo of Josh Brolin in full motion-capture gear (purple, natch) rehearsing for his role as Thanos, the intergalactic supervillain who plans to rain havoc on Earth’s mightiest heroes.

Brolin will provide the movement and voice of the big bad, which will be rendered in CGI in the film, slated to arrive in theaters on May 4, 2018.

Filming is set to begin in November at Atlanta’s Pinewood Studios, where many MCU productions have been based, most recently Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Thanos first popped up during the credits sequence in The Avengers, where he was revealed as the mastermind behind the Chitauri invastion. He next appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy, dispatching Ronan to retrieve the Orb. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, after the titular android fails in his bid to wipe out the heroes, Thanos declares, “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” And with that, he dons the Infinity Gauntlet, a metallic glove that has slots for the six Infinity Stones. Once combined, the gauntlet gives its owner near omnipotence. Presumably, Infinity War will find Thanos trying to unite the stones in the gauntlet. And it will take the combined might of the MCU’s heroes to stop him.

Watch a supercut of Thanos’s movie appearances:

Over the course of the MCU installments, four of the stones have been unearthed:

—the Tesseract, which powered the Red Skull’s forces in Captain America: The First Avenger, houses the Space Stone. It was last seen getting locked up in Odin’s vault in Asgard at the end of The Avengers.

—the Mind Stone provided the juice for Loki’s scepter in The Avengers; during Age of Ultron, Thor gave the stone to Vision, who wears it in his cranium.

—the Orb that Thanos was enthralled by in Guardians contains the Power Stone; after defeating Ronan, Star-Lord and pals presented the trinket to Nova Corps for safekeeping.

—the Aether from Thor: The Dark World was the liquid form of the Reality Stone. It was captured and handed over to The Collector.

The final two gems — the Soul Stone and the Time Stone — have yet to surface; however, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has intimated that the Eye of Agamotto in Doctor Strange’s magic-channeling amulet is one of the stones. We’ll know for sure when Doctor Strange hits theaters on Nov. 4.

In the meantime, we’ll keep watching the Russos’ Facebook page to see how Thanos is shaping up.

Watch the Russo brothers explain the importance of Thanos: