Every MCU Post-Credits Scene That Never Paid Off
By Jimigrimm
Spoilers ahead for every MCU movie through Spider-Man: Brand New Day, plus the Avengers: Endgame Encore footage.
Iron Man came out in 2008, and after the credits Nick Fury is standing in Tony Stark’s house. “I’m here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative.” Four years later we got The Avengers. That scene made the deal for everything after it. You sit through the credits, Marvel shows you something, and eventually that something shows up on screen.
For a long time Marvel kept the deal. Coulson finding the hammer at the end of Iron Man 2 led to Thor. The Other reporting to Thanos at the end of The Avengers in 2012 led all the way to Infinity War six years later. Bucky waking up in Wakanda after Black Panther put him right back in the fight. Some of these scenes built the MCU.
But me personally, I’m getting tired of sitting in the movie theater for 15 minutes. I don’t care about end credit scenes anymore. I think Marvel started doing them because it became a gimmick, and not every movie needs one. They’re showing us something we’re never going to get answers for. I’d rather just wait for the spoilers to come online.
This list is the scenes that set up something specific that still hasn’t happened on screen as of November 5, 2026. Gags don’t count, so the shawarma is safe. An actor showing up somewhere else doesn’t count, and neither does Marvel announcing a project. The story the scene promised has to actually play out.
The one Marvel walked away from
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania came out in February 2023, and its mid-credits scene was built to be the next Thanos. Three Kang variants meet in an arena, then the camera pulls back on a crowd of Kangs from all over the multiverse. That was the setup for the next Avengers movie, and the next Avengers movie was called The Kang Dynasty.
It never happened. Jonathan Majors was convicted of assault and harassment on December 18, 2023, and Marvel dropped him after the verdict, according to Variety. On July 27, 2024, Robert Downey Jr. pulled off a Doom mask at San Diego Comic-Con, and the next Avengers movie became Doomsday.
The firing is only part of it. In July 2025, Kevin Feige told reporters “Kang wasn’t big enough, wasn’t Thanos,” and said the Doom talks with Downey started before Quantumania came out and before the legal case, as The Playlist reported. I gave my full take on that pivot in How Marvel Got From Endgame to Doomsday.
Quantumania’s other scene, Loki and Mobius watching Victor Timely, did pay off in Loki season 2. The Council is what got left behind. Every other scene on this list could still happen. This is the only one where Marvel clearly changed plans.
Still waiting since 2021
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings came out in September 2021 with two scenes. In the mid-credits, Wong brings Shang-Chi and Katy to meet Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers, and they find out the rings are sending a signal. Nobody in the room knows where it’s going or who’s on the other end. Writer Dave Callaham told Inverse they shot it more than one way and kept it open on purpose. Five years later we still don’t know. Director Destin Daniel Cretton told TheWrap on August 4, 2026, “I have every intention of answering the question.” He didn’t say when.
The post-credits scene has Xialing running her father’s Ten Rings and training women alongside the men for the first time, then a card that says “The Ten Rings will return.” Meng’er Zhang told Inverse at the time, “I know nothing about what’s coming next for her.” Xialing taking over happens right there in the scene. The Ten Rings coming back is the part we’re still waiting on.
Eternals came out in November 2021 with two more. In the first, Thena, Makkari and Druig get a visit from Pip the Troll and Eros, played by Harry Styles and introduced as Thanos’s brother, who offers to help them find the Eternals who got taken. In the second, Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman opens the box holding the Ebony Blade and a voice asks, “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr. Whitman?” Director Chloé Zhao later confirmed that voice was Mahershala Ali’s Blade, as ABC Audio reported from her Fandom interview.
Neither one went anywhere. Feige told Inverse on July 22, 2024, “There are no immediate plans for Eternals 2.” Marvel hasn’t called it cancelled. It has been five years, though, and the Blade movie that voice was pointing at never got made. I broke down how that fell apart in Blade, Armor Wars, Wonder Man, and What Marvel Protects When It Cuts.
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Spider-Man: No Way Home closed out 2021. In the mid-credits, Eddie Brock gets sent back to his own universe and a little piece of the symbiote stays behind in the MCU. Writer Chris McKenna told Variety “the Symbiote has knowledge of other universes,” as SYFY reported. That explains why Eddie got pulled in. It doesn’t tell us what happens to the piece that stayed, and the MCU hasn’t picked it back up.
The 2022 and 2023 setups
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness came out in May 2022. In the mid-credits, Charlize Theron’s Clea shows up and tells Strange he caused an incursion, and he leaves with her to deal with it. Writer Michael Waldron told CinemaBlend that Clea is “the great love of his life in the comics.” That’s a big introduction for a character we haven’t seen since. Theron told ELLE in 2026 she was “not the person to ask” about Doomsday.
Thor: Love and Thunder came out in July 2022. In the mid-credits, Zeus turns out to be alive and sends his son Hercules, played by Brett Goldstein, after Thor. Asked about coming back, Goldstein told The Playlist’s Bingeworthy podcast in January 2023, “I honestly don’t have any answers to that.” He said he wasn’t being coy. He just didn’t know.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 came out in May 2023. The post-credits scene has Peter Quill back on Earth eating breakfast with his grandfather, then a card that says Star-Lord will return. Chris Pratt told the Bingeworthy podcast, “So yeah, you’ll see Star-Lord again, which is very exciting,” as TheWrap reported on October 21, 2026. He didn’t say when.
The Marvels came out in November 2023. In the mid-credits, Monica Rambeau wakes up in another universe. Her mother Maria is Binary there and doesn’t know her as a daughter, and Kelsey Grammer’s Beast is in the room. Producer Mary Livanos told Entertainment Weekly Monica ended up there “with the hope that it could tie in with the X-Men.” The X-Men are in Doomsday. Monica is still stuck over there.
The old ones that only half paid off
Thor: The Dark World is from 2013. In its mid-credits scene, Sif and Volstagg hand the Aether to the Collector on Knowhere, and he says, “One down, five to go.” Guardians of the Galaxy showed his collection getting wrecked, and in Infinity War, Thanos takes the Reality Stone on Knowhere. The Stone’s story got finished. The Collector going after the rest of the set never did.
Doctor Strange came out in 2016. In the post-credits scene, Mordo takes back the magic Jonathan Pangborn uses to walk and decides the problem with the world is too many sorcerers. That’s a villain origin. Director Scott Derrickson told ScreenCrush that November, “We wrote the scene for Mordo and shot that separately.” Chiwetel Ejiofor did come back in Multiverse of Madness, but as the Mordo from Earth-838. The Mordo from the first movie, and the war on sorcerers he was starting, never got his story.
The Disney+ shows have their own list
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier finale aired in April 2021. In the mid-credits, Sharon Carter gets a pardon and her government job back, then gets on the phone about selling government secrets and prototype weapons. That deal still hasn’t gone down on screen.
Moon Knight’s finale in May 2022 ends with Khonshu bringing out Jake Lockley, who shoots Harrow. That’s a whole third personality we barely met. Creator Jeremy Slater told ComicBook.com in May 2025 that a second season is up to Kevin Feige and Oscar Isaac. “I think the ball’s really in their court.”
She-Hulk’s finale in October 2022 has Wong breaking Emil Blonsky out of prison and taking him to Kamar-Taj. The scene jokes about Wong being off in another show, and people read that as a tease. Head writer Jessica Gao told Entertainment Weekly it was about Wong watching TV: “he’s just been bingeing all of the prestige television that was available to him.” Wong and Blonsky as roommates is still where we left them.
Ironheart ended in July 2025 with Parker Robbins, after losing the hood, going to Zelma Stanton for magic help, as Inverse described it. We haven’t seen where that goes.
What Doomsday has to answer
Avengers: Doomsday comes out December 18, 2026, and the recent scenes are pointing straight at it. It’s too early to call any of these unpaid. They’re the movie’s homework.
Captain America: Brave New World came out in February 2025. In the post-credits, Sam visits Samuel Sterns at the Raft, and Sterns warns him something is coming from other worlds. Director Julius Onah told TheWrap the scene was shot during additional photography, and that “things are purposely left vague in that post-credit for a reason.”
Thunderbolts* came out in May 2025. Its post-credits scene jumps 14 months ahead. Sam is suing the New Avengers over the name, and a ship with a giant 4 on it shows up, per TheWrap. The Fantastic Four: First Steps followed in July 2025. Its mid-credits scene is four years after the movie, and Sue finds Doom sitting with Franklin, holding his mask. You never see his face, as TheWrap noted.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day came out July 31, 2026, with one scene at the very end of the credits. No actors are in it. The Spidey Tracker app loses its sighting on Earth and picks one up out in space, past the moon, per TheWrap. In that same August interview, Cretton said viewers “will find out” what it means. That’s all he’d say.
Then Avengers: Endgame Encore hit theaters in September 2026 with new footage after the credits. Doom comes for Bruce Banner, and Disney says his reasons are unknown. The TVA watches universes collapse in one incursion after another. “This is sort of the end of times,” Joe Russo told Disney. The last tag takes the hammering sound from the end of the original Endgame and puts it over footage that ends on Doom’s mask. TheWrap reported some of this footage only played in premium formats like IMAX, so not everybody saw all of it. I went through the Doom and Tony question in Why Does Doctor Doom Look Like Tony Stark?
What's confirmed and what isn't
Confirmed: every scene on this list is on screen the way it’s described here. Marvel dropped the Kang plan and moved to Doom. Doomsday’s US date is December 18, 2026, and the filmmakers quoted above said what they said, on the dates given.
Not confirmed: where the Ten Rings signal goes, who the Spidey Tracker picked up in space, what Doom wants with Banner or Franklin, and whether Doomsday answers any of the scenes on this list. You’ll see fans tie the rings to Kang and the Brand New Day sighting to Battleworld. Those are theories. Marvel hasn’t confirmed either one.
Which one of these do you still want Marvel to pay off? And if Doomsday only gets to answer one, which one should it be?
Co-founder and co-host. Veteran. Grew up on cartoons. The MCU brought all of it back and pulled him into the comics side he never picked up as a kid. Curious by default. Passionate without needing to prove anything. Good at holding a conversation.