Nothing says Marvel quite like a good post-credit scene. Whether they tease the next movie, give us a cameo, or merely get one last joke in before the theater lights go up, the best MCU post-credit scenes rival the content of the movies themselves. Here are the top ten post-credit scenes in the MCU!
10. The Avengers: Thanos’s Reveal
After the Avengers defeat Loki and close the portal that the Chitauri are using to invade New York, the Other goes to his boss to deliver the bad news. That boss turns out to be none other than Thanos, the Mad Titan.
This scene is a bit clunky, and if you rewatch it now, you can see that they were still tweaking Thanos’s character (i.e., the glowing blue eyes, the weird grin for no reason). However, it makes the top ten because it set up the truly colossal scope of the MCU. Back then, most viewers thought that the Avengers team-up was huge enough in itself, and the idea that The Avengers was, in turn, the setup for an even bigger event was mind-blowing. The payoff wouldn’t come for several more years, which made this post-credit scene immensely satisfying in hindsight.
9. Hawkeye: The Avengers Musical
After the series finale of Hawkeye, we’re transported back to a Broadway theater to the musical that Clint was watching before he turned off his hearing aid. Then we just…watch the entire musical number. The whole thing. They wrote and performed this entire song just to subject us to it in the post-credits.
This scene is fantastic just for how hard it punked everyone. It’s the most annoying song in history, with choreography that makes you want to crawl under your chair. If, like me, you were a big enough sucker to sit through the whole thing in the hopes of something else happening—like, I don’t know, Blorko bursting through the wall or something—then you deserve every ounce of cringe that you got. This scene is so bad that it passes through bad into good, and then on to amazing.
8. WandaVision: Wanda Hears Her Boys
At the end of WandaVision, Wanda seems to have accepted the loss of Vision and her two kids, Billy and Tommy. However, when we catch up with her in an isolated cabin in the mountains, we learn that that chapter in her life isn’t over yet. Wanda has split herself into two forms—her physical self is in civilian clothing, and her astral form is in her Scarlet Witch regalia—and as she studies the forbidden grimoire, the Darkhold, she suddenly hears Billy and Tommy calling out for help.
Even though Wanda is sort of the villain in WandaVision—at least, that’s how all the people of Westview see her—the grief and trauma that she’s experienced over and over again makes everything she does understandable. Getting that little glimmer of hope in Billy and Tommy’s voices, plus the urgency of Wanda’s new quest to find and save them, prevents the end of the series from feeling like the whole point of the story was to snatch away every last bit of happiness in her life. Plus, it’s a great setup for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
7. Doctor Strange: Thor’s Visit
Strange has settled into life as master of the Santcum Sanctorum, and he has a guest! After a moment, the camera reveals that that guest is none other than Thor Odinson, who has brought Loki to earth to help him look for their father.
The overlap between Doctor Strange fans and Thor fans is pretty big (mystic Marvel fans are seriously our own subculture), so getting the two of them in the same room is already pretty thrilling. More than that, though, this scene has all the stuff that makes Marvel post-credit scenes so satisfying. Thor is a delicious and surprising cameo. The reference to Loki and Odin picks up where Thor: The Dark World left off, so fans finally got to find out what happened next in Asgard. Finally, Strange saying he’d help Thor hinted at his own upcoming cameo in Ragnarok. The post-credit scenes are part of what ties the MCU together, and in that sense, this one was pitch-perfect.
6. Black Panther: Wakanda Opens to the World
After T’Challa decides to reveal Wakanda’s technology to the rest of the world, he addresses the UN in Vienna. T’Challa speaks eloquently about the need for all nations on earth to build bridges and care for each other as if everyone were members of the same tribe. One diplomat asks what a nation of supposed farmers could possibly offer the rest of the world, and T’Challa smiles in response.
This scene is breathtaking for so many reasons. First off, it brings a satisfying conclusion to T’Challa’s emotional arc in the movie, showing that he’s been deeply changed by the revelations about his cousin Erik/N’Jadaka and the cost of keeping Wakanda hidden from the world. Secondly, Black Panther fans can revel in the dramatic irony of all those diplomats from wealthy nations looking down on Wakanda. They’re about to get schooled, big time. Finally, it sets up the stakes for Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever. What will happen to Wakanda when it no longer has its secrecy to protect it?
5. Ant-Man and the Wasp: the Snap Hits San Francisco
Ant-Man and the Wasp came out just a few months after Infinity War, so audiences went into it knowing that the Snap was going to show up somehow. Sure enough, at the end, Scott enters the Quantum Realm in order to collect a sample for the Pyms. He finds himself trapped there, though, when Hank, Janet, and Hope are all dusted before they can pull him out.
Although the scene raises a couple of timeline questions (are they following the news about the spaceship that appeared in New York the other day? Scott’s not going to go help out with that whole thing? Okay), it’s a chilling way to show the Snap reverberating across Earth. Plus, it sets up Scott’s integral role in figuring out how the Quantum Realm can be used for time travel in Endgame.
4. Spider-Man: Homecoming: Captain America’s PSA
Steve Rogers’s educational videos are one of the highlights of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and the final one in the movie doesn’t disappoint. Captain America comes onscreen and says, “Hi, I’m Captain America, here to talk to you about one of the most valuable traits a soldier or student can have: patience. Sometimes patience is the key to victory. Sometimes it leads to very little, and it seems like it’s not worth it, and you wonder why you waited so long for something so disappointing.” He finishes, smiling, but the camera is still rolling. He looks at someone offscreen. “How many more of these?” he asks.
If a post-credit scene isn’t going to tease the next Marvel movie or reveal some fantastic cameo, then it should lean hard into the comedy, and in that regard, this post-credit scene is absolutely masterful. Steve Rogers is one of the funniest straight men (in the comedic sense, although I guess in the heteronormative sense, too) in the MCU. Steve really shines when Marvel highlights just how wonderfully ridiculous the whole concept of Captain America is.
3. Shang-Chi: Wong Sings Karaoke
Shang-Chi and Katy are examining the ten rings with the help of a few experts who have been called in: Wong, Carol Danvers, and Bruce Banner. They notice that the rings are sending out some kind of beacon, but they don’t know what kind of beacon it is, or who might be receiving it on the other end. Wong tells the youngsters to get some rest…but then they get drunk and go out for karaoke instead.
Shang-Chi is largely a self-contained movie, focusing on Shang-Chi’s origin story instead of throwing a bunch of other heroes in the mix. That’s why it’s so exciting to see Carol and Bruce show up at the very end. They and Wong basically tell the audience that Shang-Chi is going to become an Avenger (or whatever team will exist after the Avengers). Plus, Wong doing a drunken “Hotel California” isn’t just hilarious—it shows a part of his character that we haven’t really seen much of so far. Wong isn’t just the humorless librarian-turned-Sorcerer Supreme (with a side hustle fighting in cage matches). He can let loose, too!
2. Spider-Man: Far From Home: Peter is Outed as Spider-Man
Peter is taking MJ for a web-sling through the streets of New York, when a news broadcast appears all over the city. J. Jonah Jamison of the Daily Bugle has obtained Mysterio’s last message. That message not only reveals Spider-Man’s identity but blames Peter for Mysterio’s death.
It’s exciting enough that we finally get to see Jamison in Tom Holland’s spider-verse, and turning the Bugle into a cable news-type broadcast makes total sense, given that we now live in the age of streaming content instead of print newspapers. But the cliffhanger is the best part of this post-credit scene, with Peter finding out that his identity has been revealed and he’s now wanted for murder in the space of two seconds. It left audiences clamoring for the next installment of Spidey’s story.
1. The Avengers: the Shawarma Scene
No post-credit scene beats the famous shawarma scene at the end of The Avengers. After closing the portal to the Chitauri, Tony tells his new teammates that there’s a good shawarma place a few blocks away. Then, after apprehending Loki, they go eat.
The scene is just a few moments of the Avengers sitting in the restaurant eating. That’s it. That’s all it is. But the humor in the scene is so brilliantly dry, with the exhausted heroes taking a load off and filling their bellies, that it remains the best ever Marvel post-credit scene.
What’s your favorite MCU post-credit scene? Are there any you think should have made the top ten? Let us know in the comments!
(image: Sony)
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