[Published at The Playlist] Marvel Studios has been building to “Avengers: Infinity War” for a decade now. It’s the moment that all of the films and characters finally come together (that’s right, the Guardians of the Galaxy will finally unite with the Avengers) to take on their biggest threat in Thanos. Thanos has been teased as the villain since “The Avengers” in 2012. To put that into perspective, 12 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) have been released since then.

“With Infinity War, it’s coming to a climax, coming to a conclusion of seeds with all the MacGuffins in various movies,” said Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige to EW, “and with Untitled Avengers a year later, bringing what will be that first 22 movie arc to a finality….You start to think differently about how the characters are interacting, what character’s stories are coming to a close, and what character’s stories are only just beginning. Those stories will continue. I think they’ll continue in surprisingly different and unexpected ways after these two Avengers films.”

Expect big changes as the MCU begins to pave the way for a new generation of heroes, ending with “Avengers 4” in 2019. Surprising cameos, plot twists, and big, dramatic deaths. Here is the official premise of Avengers: Infinity War.

As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos (Josh Brolin). A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment – the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain.

New characters teaming up with the Avengers to fight Thanos are the Guardians of the Galaxy (Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt, and Zoe Saldana, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn), the residents of Wakanda (Chadwick Boseman, Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, and Angela Bassett), and Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), among others.

Avengers: Infinity War will be the Russo brothers’ third film after “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Captain America: Civil War.” was originally slated to be released on May 4, 2018. However, in a surprising interactive PR stunt, Robert Downey Jr. announced on Twitter that he couldn’t wait that long, echoing the sentiment of all of us. So, Marvel bumped the release day a week earlier to April 27, 2018 for audiences worldwide. Thanks, Iron Man!

Here’s a new poster to go along with the shiny, new trailer: