10 MCU Mid/Post-Credit Scenes That Might Never Lead To Anything
Since Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) showed up in the post-credits scene of Iron Man to recruit Tony Stark into the Avengers, post-credit scenes have become the signature feature of Marvel films.
RELATED: 10 Comics Characters Ryan Reynolds Should Play After Deadpool
Their significance cannot be downplayed either, as they served as the best snippets into the franchise’s future, introducing the most important MCU events, such as the arrival of Thanos. Unfortunately, some mid/post-credit scenes haven’t exactly led to anything, especially since the MCU’s release calendar was disrupted after the pandemic.
As more MCU films are released, the list of hopeless post-credit scenes continues to grow, and Marvel doesn’t seem to be giving up on them anytime soon either. However, their significance has reduced significantly, judging by the little substance invested in the mid and post-credit scenes of Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*. It is still impossible to forget some of the MCU’s most promising post-credit scenes that don’t seem to have a future anymore.
Sharon Carter Becomes the Power Broker (‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,’ 2021)
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier introduced the new age of Captain America, but the show’s post-credits scene is yet to be resolved. In the scene, Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) receives a full pardon and gets reinstated to her old division. However, she makes an ominous phone call telling her unnamed collaborator to start lining up buyers. “Super soldiers might be off the menu, but we are about to have full access to government secrets, prototype weapons, you name it. Should be something for everyone,” she says on the call.
Her phone call suggested that she will become a villain in some capacity and probably be the new power broker, taking advantage of the Avengers. Unfortunately, Sharon Carter hasn’t appeared in any MCU film since her cameo in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. With her scene failing to materialize in both Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*, its future seems bleaker than ever.
The New Guardians (‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,’ 2023)
After the behind-the-scenes struggles of bringing it to life, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hitting the theatres was a miracle in itself. While it was clearly meant to be the end of the James Gunn-led trilogy, Marvel chose to give fans hope by including both a mid- and post-credit scene. In the mid-credits scene, Rocket, having been appointed the new leader, leads a team of the new Guardians of the Galaxy, which includes Groot, Kraglin, Cosmo, Adam, Phyla, and Blurp on a new mission.
However, as expected, James Gunn left the MCU after the film, and Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t have much of a future without him. It is therefore unlikely that fans will ever know the results of the team’s new mission, which is a disappointment considering the film was quite satisfactory without the scene.
Jake Lockley Revealed (‘Moon Knight,’ 2022)
RELATED: The 5 Biggest Hits And 5 Biggest Misses In The Avengers: Doomsday Cast Ranked
Moon Knight is another MCU TV Show in limbo after Marvel failed to renew it for a second season despite an electric performance by Oscar Isaac as the three alternate identities of Marc Spector. The show, however, has a post-credits scene that shows the revival of a new identity of Marc Spector called Jake Lockley.
In the scene, Lockley, now working for Knonshu, kills Harrow, suggesting that the Egyptian god’s mission isn’t complete. Despite Oscar Isaac expressing interest in reprising the role of Marc Spector, there has been no mention of the renewal of Moon Knight in any form by Marvel, so it is unlikely that Jake Lockley’s newfound mission will amount to anything.
Dane Whitman’s Enigmatic Blade Tease (‘Eternals,’ 2021)
“Are you sure you are ready for that, Mr. Whitman?” Blade’s (Mahershala Ali) voice warns Dane Whitman just as he is about to grab the Ebony Blade in the post-credits scene of Eternals. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t seem to have a future in the MCU, and neither does its post-credits scene. The scene was setting up Kit Harrington to become the Black Knight, bearing the Ebony Blade, making him one of the most powerful characters in the MCU.
This would only happen if Eternals got a sequel or the Blade film finally got made. Unfortunately, Eternals was a big flop that Marvel has no plan of revisiting, while Blade is stuck in development hell. Both Mahershala Ali and Kit Harrington’s characters, therefore, have no future in the MCU as it stands, making the scene obsolete.
Eros and Pip the Troll (‘Eternals’, 2021)
With Eternals 2 cancelled by Marvel, the film’s flamboyant mid-credits scene has also turned into another unfulfilled promise. In the scene, Eros/Starfox (Harry Styles), who is revealed to be an eternal and the brother of Thanos, emerges through a portal in the Domo, telling Thena, Mekkari, and Druig that their friends are in big trouble and that he knows where to find them.
Eros’s sidekick, Pip the Troll (Patton Oswalt), is also a dominant figure in the scene as he helps prop up Eros as some legendary cosmic figure, just like Thanos. The scene suggests that Starfox is now part of the MCU’s cosmic future and might play a big role in the future of the Eternals. Putting a high-profile name like Harry Styles in the role also helped draw more attention to it, which is why the failure to follow up on the scene is such a disappointment to the fan base.
The Ten Rings’ Mysterious Signal (‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,’ 2021)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was a welcome breath of fresh air into the MCU, but the positive reception hasn’t prompted a sequel to come any faster. The film’s mid-credits scene is also one of the most significant in the franchise as it sought to connect the legendary Ten Rings to the MCU.
In the scene, Wong conducts a holographic meeting in which Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers examine the ten rings and seem to make astonishing discoveries, including the fact that the rings are sending out a message to an unknown location. However, the scene is never revisited in the MCU, even when Danvers appears in The Marvels in 2023.
Mordo Turns Dark (‘Doctor Strange,’ 2016)
Doctor Strange (2016) played a vital role in the launch of the multiverse saga, which is now the core theme of the MCU. However, in the film’s post-credits scene, Baron Mordo launches his new path as a villain, which, despite being in line with his role as Dr. Strange’s archnemesis in the comics, is yet to be fulfilled in an MCU film nearly a decade later. In the scene, Mordo attacks a harmless Jonathan Pangborn, telling him, “I see at last what is wrong with the world: Too many sorcerers,” after which he takes away his power, leaving him paralyzed.
However, there is no reference to any more sorcerers eliminated by Mordo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, or any other MCU film, for that matter. Earth-616’s Mordo was apparently set to be decapitated by Wanda in a deleted scene of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which means Marvel is ready to walk away from the confusion caused by the scene. Unfortunately, since the scene was deleted, Mordo’s mission remains a mystery, and one that might never be resolved.
The Return of Mac Gargan/The Scorpion (‘Spider-Man: Homecoming,’ 2017)
RELATED: 10 Other Comic Characters Robert Downey Jr. Should Play After Doctor Doom
Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is set for a whole new start in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day after the character, with Doctor Strange’s help, got everyone to forget his identity in Spider-Man: No Way Home. However, the erasing of these memories put the future of the unresolved Spider-Man: Homecoming mid-credits scene in limbo.
In the scene, Mac Gargan (Michael Mando) meets Adrien Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton) in prison and asks him about the identity of Spider-Man, claiming to have friends on the outside who would “take a picture, slice his throat, put his head in a dryer.” While Toomes doesn’t give him Parker’s name, the scene is still a clear prediction of an alliance that would probably form the Sinister Six, which is a significant part of Spider-Verse in the comics. Unfortunately, three Spider-Man films in, Gargan hasn’t been seen again, and Doctor Strange’s spell now seems to have made the scene impractical.
The Arrival of Hercules (“Thor: Love and Thunder,” 2022)
After Zeus (Russell Crowe) lost the battle to Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder, his retribution was expected to come at some point in the MCU. In the film’s mid-credits scene, Zeus commands his son, Hercules (Brett Goldstein), to go and kill Thor in a bid to restore “the glory of the gods.”
The promise of an Olympian powerful enough to take on Thor was an interesting twist to the film, especially after Thor made such an easy work of Zeus. However, Brett Goldstein’s version of Herc is yet to make an appearance in the MCU since his short cameo in the scene. Marvel hasn’t given any word on whether Thor 5 will happen either, so there is very little hope for the scene’s proposed duel between the son of Zeus and the Asgardian.
The Council of Kangs (‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,’ 2023)
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania had one of the most explosive mid-credit scenes in MCU history, as it revealed that the death of He Who Remains, the version of Kang that had just been destroyed in the film, had only unleashed deadlier versions of the character on the multiverse. The scene features three versions of Kang, namely Rama-Tut, The Scarlet Centurion, and Immortus, discussing how to take over the multiverse now that their nemesis has been killed.
The scene was supposed to launch Kang as the primary supervillain of the multiverse in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Unfortunately, Disney was forced to part ways with Jonathan Majors after he was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend, which meant everything about Kang had to be removed from the scripts. With Avengers: Doomsday adopting Dr. Doom as the new big bad of the multiverse, the MCU doesn’t seem to have any more room for the council of Kangs to fulfill their mission.
READ NEXT: 10 Best Actors With The Worst MCU Debuts
