Buzzapp Master 
The following story contains spoilers for Thunderbolts*.
FANS OF THE Marvel Cinematic Universe have been trained well. When you go to see most movies at your favorite local theater, the moment the movie ends and the credits begin to roll, you’ll look around and see people starting to get up out of their seats. At a Marvel movie, this is never the case. Ever since the loyal few who stayed until the last names rolled through the screen at the end of 2008’s Iron Man were rewarded with the very first appearance of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and a tease of the Avengers, MCU fans know that the end of the movie is probably where they’re going to get something at the very least fun, and, possibly, quite juicy.
Recently, though, this hasn’t been the case. While the credits scene has continued to be a Marvel mainstay, the things they’ve teased have frequently led nowhere. Thor: Love and Thunder, for example, introduced Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein as Hercules. Did that go anywhere? No. Will it ever? Uh, we’ll see (but probably not). Perhaps even worse was the credits scene included with Captain America: Brave New World, which featured The Leader (Tim Blake Nelson) making a vague reference toward “others” coming. Cool, the 100th reference to, presumably, some kind of multiverse situation—something everyone following these movies has been familiar with for years and years and offering nothing particularly new or exciting.
Luckily, Thunderbolts* is something of an MCU rut-buster. The movie is in contention for the franchise’s best movie since Avengers: Endgame, and rights many of the things that seemed to be trending in the wrong direction with some of Marvel’s more recent big-screen offerings. Thunderbolts* is shot in actual locations (making minimal use of green screen and The Volume technology), features characters with actual depth and personality played by really charismatic actors, and tells a story that doesn’t ever lose itself in too much lore or too many references. It’s just a good old fashioned strong movie, one that feels like the ship getting rightened, and one that also—like the old days of the MCU—serves to strongly set up some things that we know are actually coming, and coming soon.
Let’s first recap how the movie actually ends. Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (a fantastic Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is, well, let’s just say an evil, conniving version of Nick Fury. She’s sent many of her own anti-hero agents (Florence Pugh’s Yelena, Wyatt Russell’s John Walker, and Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost) to kill each other, only for them to meet Bob (Lewis Pullman) who turned out to be the lone successful result of something called “The Sentry Project,” turning a regular dude into one of the most powerful beings in the world.
Eventually, those anti-heroes and Bob (along with David Harbour’s Red Guardian and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes) joined forces, creating a team that against all odds (and against Val’s plans) joined together, worked together well, and actually cared about each other. In fact, they even overcame a fault in Val’s plan—when Sentry (Bob’s superhero identity) gave in to his own darkness and depression, becoming The Void and potentially dooming the world. But the Thunderbolts* (named after Yelena’s crappy softball team from her youth) make it out alive… just in time to see Val. And they want to make her pay, whether it’s killing her on the spot or bringing her straight to prison.
But Val, having seen how these people worked together and how the public reacted to their heroics, had another, faster plan. She introduces them, without their knowledge, at an impromtu press conference. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the New Avengers.
Everyone is shocked, and no one more than these supposed New Avengers themselves (Red Guardian, who’s been searching for his hero moment, seems pretty psyched). But this, of course, is just the beginning. Well, until the credits scenes, at least.
Does Thunderbolts have a credits scene?Yes! As usual with the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thunderbolts* has not one but two credits scenes. While the first one is primarily just a fun moment for Red Guardian, the second is pretty substantial for the characters, where their story is headed, and the future of the MCU.
Credits scene 1: The New Avengers have arrived—and on Wheaties boxes too
Marvel Studios
The first credits scene in Thunderbolts is just a fun time after the surprising end to the film. The imagery during the credits shows what the New Avengers get up to in the time after Val’s announcement—featuring all sorts of headlines and news—and its clear that they’re becoming quite famous (and not quite universally liked).
The camera then settles on a grocery story aisle, and Red Guardian (David Harbour, now with a nicely-groomed mustache instead of his unruly beard) is trying to draw someone’s attention to him (specifically) and the team on a Wheaties box as she looks to pick out the right cereal. She picks it up for a second, doesn’t totally realize it’s him, walks for a little bit, and then puts it down. Not super successful! But fun nonetheless. Look, we’re happy for our guy Alexi—he deserves his moment in the sun.
Credits scene 2: An incoming spacecraft (The Fantastic Four have arrived in the Pogo Plane!)
Marvel Comics
The second scene is much more substantial as far as the content of the MCU. We meet up, 14 months later, with the New Avengers hanging out in the Avengers Tower (now owned by Val and called The Watchtower), rocking their uniforms, and lamenting on something that should be pretty essential: The public doesn’t respect them as the real Avengers, despite being officially state-sanctioned as such (the closing credits showed a sequence of articles from magazines and newspapers, mostly reflecting on the fact that the people largely don’t see them as the heroes they’ve been anointed as).
Captain America Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) doesn’t appear in the scene, but we hear second-hand that he’s not happy with this development, is planning to set up his own team, and that he’s filed for his own copyright of the team’s name. We also learn that he and Bucky aren’t seeing eye to eye on any of this. Red Guardian, meanwhile, has a way around it: He’s made up some jumpsuits that call them the “New AvengerZ”—yes, with a Z. Copyright skirted! He’s also wearing very cool sunglasses in this moment, and, in general, clearly just having a good time. He was doing it for the glory, and, folks, he got it.
Bob, meanwhile, is kind of just chilling. He’s not dangerous, since he’s put “the other half” to bed for now; The relationship between Sentry and The Void seems to be very similar to the relationship between Hulk and Banner. Except that Banner is a brilliant scientist and Bob is kind of just some dude. But it’s OK because he’s cool.
Anyway. The New Avengers are monitoring threats and kind of just passing the time, being figureheads, things like that. We also hear about some outer space mystery that they don’t know about, but that has been apparently hinted at. But they get word of an unidentified, inter-dimensional object entering the Earth’s atmosphere… and, folks, it’s revealed to be the Fantastic Four’s Pogo Plane. This is the famed superhero team’s favorite mode of travel for long-distance ventures (as opposed to the Fantasticar, which they use for more every day situations). We know, then, that somehow these things will come together. It’s one hell of a cliffhanger.
Interestingly, this scene is actually directly from the set of next year’s Avengers: Doomsday, and was directed by The Russo Brothers (who are helming that film) rather than Jake Schreier (who directed Thunderbolts*). This is similar to when Doctor Strange ended with a scene of Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) meeting with Thor (Chris Hemsworth); It was actually a scene directly from Thor: Ragnarok, and was directed by that film’s director, Taika Waititi, rather than Doctor Strange’s Scott Derrickson.
To all of this, we say: Finally! Obviously, the New Avengers have no idea what this is or what it means—but we do. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the next MCU movie to be released (coming in July), and we know this will tie into both that film and next year’s major event Avengers: Doomsday. It’s a wonderful throwback to the way of doing things in the early days of the MCU: The credits scene of Iron Man 2 teased Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer, and the next movie to be released was Thor. We know what’s coming, and here’s something to get us excited about it.
And, reader, it worked. We are excited.
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
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