Granted, a good number of the MCU heroes we’ve met have also met each other - Boseman’s T’Challa was first introduced in Captain America: Civil War, so while Captain America (Chris Evans) may end up meeting the Wakandan king’s extended family soon, he knows the Black Panther well enough already. But all of the years of the MCU impressing upon audiences that Thanos is a serious bad guy doesn’t quite match up to the goofy thrill of watching Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) bump up against each other, two wildly different leaders from different parts of the galaxy. Phases Two and Three of the MCU have served as a way to ramp up the eventual battle with Thanos (Josh Brolin), which will require just about every non-villainous character from past films as possible to unite to take him down before he destroys half of the human race with a snap of his finger.
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.The Marvel Cinematic Universe has spent most of the last few years not just introducing newer heroes such as Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Black Panther. “Avengers: Infinity War” opens on Friday, April 27. It all ends with one serious stinger, a single line of text that plays off a Marvel tradition of promising that its mightiest heroes will return for another battle in a new film, white words against a sea of black: “Thanos will return.”
It may not be a full scene, but it’s an added piece of flash that hints at more mayhem to come, in the minimum of time. At last, someone to save the day!įans of the franchise have long known that Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) is set to appear in the upcoming (and still untitled) fourth Avengers film, but in just one shot, the post-credits scene lets on that she will play a major role in the sequel and that she’s already a known confidante to Fury. Before that film, however, Captain Marvel will get her very own solo feature, a ’90s-set origin story appropriately titled simply “Captain Marvel.” Directed by Anne Boden and Ryan Fleck, that film will hit theaters on March 8, 2019, two months before the fourth Avengers film arrives in May. With Fury gone, the camera pans to the fallen device and its screen, which shows a message being sent…and then received, apparently by Captain Marvel, whose star-shaped logo pops up. While Fury is gone before he can even finish his expletive, he’s at least had the foresight to use a flashy communication device, styled to look like some kind of gnarly S.H.I.E.L.D. Smulders’ character disappears first, and just as Fury starts to fade away, Jackson lets out a truncated “motherf-” (for the uninitiated, this is one of the great cinematic tropes of our time). Thanos’ wicked deed has spread, and the world will never be the same.Īnd neither will Fury and Hill.
It’s disorienting enough, but then everyone starts screaming and a helicopter crashes into a high-rise behind them. Thanos’ victims don’t drop dead instead, they just start feeling weird and slowly crumble, evaporating into fragments that float away with the breeze. So, yes, the fear that “Infinity War” would kill off a lot of beloved characters proves out, and in big way. (It’s part of his master plan to bring balance back to an overloaded existence.) After gathering his precious Infinity Stones and heading to Earth to battle the planet’s mightiest heroes (yes, this is a very truncated version of everything that happens in the film), Thanos does what he has long promised, snapping the hand that wears the Infinity Gauntlet, and doing away with half of humanity in the process. In the shortest terms: at the end of “Infinity War,” the grand plan by Thanos (Josh Brolin) to wipe out half of the galaxy’s humanoid creatures (dogs, cats, space hogs, and related animals are totally fine anyone who even faintly resembles a human is a target) comes to fruition. (Spoilers ahead for both “Avengers: Infinity War” and its post-credits scene.) 1.
Here’s what it is and how it ties back in the rest of the MCU. And, as is not always the case with post-credits scenes that can feel a touch disconnected from the feature that played before them, it hammers home the same emotional beats that “Infinity War” ends on. It’s also a scene that ties directly into two upcoming Marvel films, and opens up the history of a beloved superhero characters that Marvel fans are finally set to meet on the big screen next year.