What Just Happened? Explaining the "Thunderbolts*" Post-Credits Scenes

Marvel’s Thunderbolts* is being called the best Marvel movie since Avengers: Endgame and, you know what, that might just be true. This exciting team-up film brings together so many incredible likeable and interesting characters for what all adds up to one of Marvel’s absolute best.

But, of course, it’s not all done once the credits start rolling. Thunderbolts* includes bot mid- and post-credits scenes and the latter is one that is going to have Marvel fans buzzing.

Thunderbolts* spoilers ahead!

First, some context. The asterisk in the film’s title is for such a better reason than any of us anticipated. The film ends with Yelena and the team standing next to Val in an impromptu press conference revealing them to not actually be the Thunderbolts, but the New Avengers. We then get the first credit sequence with newspaper and magazine headlines questioning the legitimacy of these New Avengers.

New Avengers was actually a team in the comics and the run did include a very complex and impactful story featuring the Sentry.

Now that we’ve covered that, let’s get into the mid-credits scene.

The heroes on the Wheaties box

In true Marvel fashion, one bonus scene is used to drive the bigger story forward while the other is pretty much just a joke. However, the roles are reversed here as it’s the mid-credits scene that packs the bonus humor.

Now a member of the New Avengers, the Red Guardian patrols the cereal aisle of a supermarket when he sees a woman shopping. He talks her into selecting Wheaties and we see the New Avengers on the cover of the box, a goal he hinted at earlier in the film. The woman reluctantly agrees to pick up the box but clearly does not recognize him from the image on it. She puts the box down after she walks away as the Red Guardian mumbles “it’s me on the box," forever searching for fame.

Now, let’s get into the good stuff.

A truly Fantastic post-credits scene

There is a lot to break down from this nearly three-minute long post-credits scene. First, we get a note that it is now 14 months in the future and we see the New Avengers returning to… I suppose New Avengers Tower. Notably, the returning team includes Yelena, John Walker, Bucky and Ghost. They’re discussing an interesting issue they’ve run into. It seems Sam Wilson is reforming the Avengers and he is contending with them for the right to take the name. Yelena even eventually explains that he has filed for copyright of the Avengers name.

This is interesting because it did seem at the end of Captain America: Brave New World as though Sam was heading in this direction. But with an existing Avengers team in place, who is Sam going to look to recruit. Bucky mentions he had a talk with Sam and “it went poorly," so it seems as though their relationship is once again fractured.

Red Guardian eventually enters with a jumpsuit that has changed the name from Avengers to Avengerz… with a z. He says this is their way around any copyright issues, but the team is not exactly on board.

Another interesting piece of information from this scene is that Bob is still technically a member of the team and living in the tower but he is not the Sentry. Despite Red Guardian urging him to be his godlike self, Bob tells us they can’t have the Sentry without having the other side of him as well, of course referencing the Void. This is always the case with the Sentry in the comics and he is often kept in the heroes’ back pocket as a sort of nuclear option for when things get really bad. Looks like we could be heading down that road.

One more interesting development from this scene before we get into the main event. Yelena is clearly the leader of the team but she seems to be a bit inexperienced. She mentions an issue in outer space and Bucky suggests pulling up satellite image. When he later suggests firing up the jets, she tells him she was going to say that. There may be some question as to who is, or should be in charge of the New Avengers.

And finally, the big exciting stinger at the true end of this film. Yelena and the team eventually do see that satellite image as the Avengers’ latest AI voice informs them that an extra-dimensional ship has entered the atmosphere. The team all approach a screen where they see the ship slowly turn to reveal the Fantastic Four logo before it cuts to black.

So what does this mean? We know the Fantastic Four we will be meeting in The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be from another universe. Now, we know they will be coming to this universe on their own. Presumably, that means they were unable to save their own universe and they have come to warn this one. Whether or not that means Galactus destroys their planet or something much bigger is the culprit remains to be seen.

Either way, we now know we are going to have two different Avengers teams, perhaps with a bit of a rivalry, and a Fantastic Four from another universe all coming together in Avengers: Doomsday.

Marvel’s Thunderbolts* is now in theaters.