Thanos, the population-decimating villain of last summer's Avengers: Infinity War, spent most of that film collecting Infinity Stones to give himself enough power to accomplish his morbid goal. But before he got started, he had to don the Infinity Gauntlet, the only thing that's capable of wielding the Stones' combined power.

While it's now a crucial part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's lore, the final design of the Infinity Gauntlet was preceded by a full range of possibilities and styles. Anthony Francisco, a Senior Visual Development Artist at Marvel Studios, has posted some of the concept art for the prop on his Instagram, showing how many different ways there are to design the golden gauntlet and its rainbow of gems.

RELATED: Thanos Limited Series Will Explore His Early Relationship With Gamora

All of Francisco's variations show the same basic configuration as the final design, with the yellow Mind Stone in the center of the Gauntlet, and four of the others placed at the knuckles (the sixth Stone being on the thumb, which is concealed from view at this angle). Beyond that, however, these versions bear little resemblance to the one seen in the film, or to each other.

RELATED: Red Skull's Early Infinity War Designs Were the Stuff of Nightmares

The images are accompanied by some enthusiastic remarks from Francisco: "I still cant believe I got to work on this film!!

The Infinity Gauntlet was damaged in the Snap, but may yet appear again in Infinity War's sequel, Avengers: Endgame, which arrives May 3, 2019. Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Olsen, Sebastian Stan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Benedict Wong, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Holland and Anthony Mackie.