The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a pretty crowded place over the past nine years, and that's only going to continue as the movies build towards 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. We've now seen dozens of iconic Marvel characters come to life on the big screen, heroes and villains alike.

Every Movie Villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe So Far 53 IMAGES

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But it's the latter group we want to spotlight right now. We've put together this slideshow feature breaking down all the major villains to appear in the MCU films to date, as well as a few more who will be making their debuts as Phase 3 continues with Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther and more. Note that we're only focusing on the movies here and not Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or the various Marvel Netflix series. The list is long enough as it is (but we'll get to those TV guys soon enough).Expect the roster of MCU villain to keep growing in the years ahead. Even with 2019's untitled Avengers movie capping off Phase 3, Marvel has plenty more superhero movies in the pipeline, including Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and a Spider-Man Homecoming sequel.Which villains are you most looking forward to seeing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Let us know in the comments below.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter , or Kicksplode on MyIGN