THUNDERBOLTS* Alternate Post-Credits Scene Included a Funny Gag and Major MCU Shift
If you saw Thunderbolts*, you know that the film ends with a major reveal asides from the “New Avengers” name, with the arrival of The Fantastic Four.
The scene, directed Anthony and Joe Russo, takes place 14 months after the events of the film. Yelena (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen),and Bob (Lewis Pullman) are now Earth’s official defenders.
Suddenly, they're alerted to a mysterious spacecraft entering the atmosphere and we then see a sleek retro-futuristic ship marked with a giant “4” on the side. The characters don’t know what’s coming, but we do!
While that moment was exciting and cool, apparently, we were very close to getting a little more. Sebastian Stan told Rotten Tomatoes.
“We had a very funny thing. Because [Bucky] was looking at [the Fantastic Four’s spaceship] as it comes in, and I go, ‘What’s the number for?’”
“And [John] had to be like, ‘What’s the number for, or what’s the number four?’” Wyatt Russell added. “And it turned into a Leslie Nielsen sketch.”
Stan was all-in on the gag: “I thought it was just genius. I’m very sad it’s not there.” Meanwhile, Russell had the opposite reaction: “Very happy it wasn’t there, because I think it might’ve made everybody want to murder my character immediately.”
That little Abbott and Costello-style exchange was cut for tone, but it does have that playful energy that I loved about the cast.
Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier revealed the scene was filmed very recently, during production on Avengers: Doomsday, which is currently shooting and set to drop in May 2026.
“I didn’t film that scene. I was there when it was filmed, and I can say that it comes from the set of a production that might be starting production right around now. But I was so honored to have that happen.”
He added that the post-credits moment came together very late in the game: “We always knew kind of the end moment, from the beginning, and then it was about building the story that led up to that [The New Avengers reveal]… That only got filmed maybe [not] even a month ago at this point. It was very recent.”
Would you have wanted that gag to stay in? Or was Marvel right to play it straight?