Will Marvel Ever Follow Through With These 10 Multiverse Saga Post-Credits Scenes?

Marvel Studios trained us well. The credits start rolling, half the theater bolts for the exits, and the rest of us sit there staring at names for ten minutes because somebody might walk through a portal, pick up a mysterious weapon, reveal themselves as a mutant, or announce that a character will return.

For years, that little ritual worked because MCU post-credits scenes usually meant something. Nick Fury showing up at Tony Stark's house eventually led to The Avengers. Thanos grinning at the camera eventually led to Infinity War. But the Multiverse Saga has played a much messier game.

Marvel has introduced new heroes, teased major villains, opened doors to other realities, and planted storylines that looked like essential pieces of its larger plan. Several years later, a surprising number of those scenes are still sitting there waiting for a payoff.

Now, with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars preparing to close the book on the Multiverse Saga and push the MCU into a fresh direction, time is running out. Some of these loose ends could still become important. Others increasingly look like leftovers from versions of Marvel's future that no longer exist.

From Kang and the Ten Rings to Doctor Strange, Hercules, Blade, Star-Lord, and the X-Men, here are 10 MCU post-credits scenes we're still waiting for Marvel Studios to explain.

1. The Council of Kangs Has Become One Massive Problem

Of all the abandoned-looking MCU teases, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania may have created the biggest headache.

The movie killed off Kang the Conqueror, only for its mid-credits sequence to reveal that he was merely one member of a gigantic collection of Variants. Immortus, Rama-Tut, and Scarlet Centurion gathered an entire arena filled with Kangs, establishing the Council of Kangs as the threat waiting beyond the Quantum Realm.

At the time, the message couldn't have been clearer. Kang wasn't finished. The scene was supposed to help drive the MCU toward Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, but Marvel's plans changed dramatically and the studio pivoted away from Kang toward Doctor Doom.

That leaves an entire stadium of multiversal villains sitting somewhere in MCU continuity with no obvious role in the endgame anymore.

Could Doomsday wipe them out, dismiss them, or somehow fold them into Doctor Doom's rise? Possibly. But Marvel needs some kind of answer. You can't show viewers hundreds of Kangs preparing for war and then pretend everyone went home.

2. Doctor Strange and Clea Have an Incursion to Deal With

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness left Stephen Strange in a pretty alarming place. After messing with the Darkhold and dreamwalking through another version of himself, Strange suddenly developed a third eye. Then Charlize Theron showed up as Clea.

She informed Strange that his actions had caused an Incursion and demanded that he accompany her into the Dark Dimension. Strange agreed, opened that creepy third eye again, and jumped through the portal.

That should be enormously important. Incursions are exactly the sort of reality-smashing events you'd expect to matter as the Multiverse Saga approaches Secret Wars. Yet Doctor Strange 3 hasn't materialized despite rumors that it was once a priority for Marvel Studios.

That puts pressure on Avengers: Doomsday to pick up the story. With Benedict Cumberbatch and Theron rumored to be among Doom's followers, the Russo Brothers may finally have an opportunity to explain where Strange has been, what he and Clea discovered, and how their Incursion connects to the catastrophe ahead.

Of every unresolved scene on this list, this is one Marvel really can't afford to ignore.

3. Starfox and Pip Are Still Looking for the Eternals

Eternals ended with half of its heroes in serious trouble. Arishem snatched Sersi, Kingo, and Phastos from Earth so he could judge whether humanity deserved to survive.

Meanwhile, Makkari, Druig, and Thena encountered two unexpected newcomers aboard the Domo: Eros, played by Harry Styles, and Pip the Troll, voiced by Patton Oswalt.

Eros offered to help them find their missing friends, setting up what looked like the beginning of a cosmic rescue mission involving the Eternals and their Celestial creators.

Then...nothing.

Eternals didn't become the critical or commercial success Marvel hoped for, and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has confirmed that an Eternals sequel isn't happening. That makes this particular cliffhanger difficult to resolve without dropping these characters into somebody else's movie.

Could Eros, Thena, Makkari, Druig, or even Arishem somehow factor into Doomsday or Secret Wars? Sure. The scale of those movies gives Marvel an excuse to bring almost anyone back.

But at this point, an appearance from this crew feels more like a long shot than part of the plan.

4. Sharon Carter Became the Power Broker and Then Vanished

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier made a major change to Emily VanCamp's Sharon Carter. After helping Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes in Madripoor, Sharon was finally pardoned for her actions following Captain America: Civil War.

She was welcomed back into the CIA, which would normally be a happy ending. Except Sharon was also revealed to be the Power Broker.

Her new government access suddenly gave a major criminal player the ability to obtain and sell sensitive information from inside the system. It was a potentially huge development that seemed designed to cause trouble across several MCU projects.

Instead, Marvel basically dropped it. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Captain America: Brave New World, and Thunderbolts* all came and went without giving the Power Broker story the payoff it appeared to be building toward.

Sharon has been underused throughout her MCU run, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to imagine where this storyline fits now. Trying to squeeze the Power Broker into Doomsday or Secret Wars would be strange unless Marvel has a much bigger plan for Sharon than we've been led to believe.

Otherwise, this may simply remain one of the Multiverse Saga's abandoned subplots.

5. Hercules Is Supposed to Be Coming for Thor

Thor: Love and Thunder ended its main story on an emotional note, but its post-credits scene immediately set up Thor's next problem.

After Thor humiliated Zeus, Russell Crowe's Greek god decided that humanity needed to fear the gods again. His solution was to send his son Hercules after the God of Thunder. Then Brett Goldstein appeared as Hercules.

It was a fun casting choice with plenty of potential. Hercules is a fantastic Marvel character who could work as Thor's rival, reluctant ally, or eventually another larger-than-life hero bouncing around the MCU. The problem is that we still don't know when we'll see him again.

If Thor 5 eventually happens, Hercules has an obvious place to return. Without that movie, things become much murkier. Thor already has a role to play in Avengers: Doomsday, and the Russo Brothers have much bigger multiversal problems to juggle than settling a grudge between Asgard and Olympus.

Still, it would be pretty funny if Hercules spent all these years hunting Thor only to arrive after reality itself starts collapsing.

6. The Legendary Star-Lord Still Hasn't Returned

James Gunn gave his Guardians a satisfying farewell in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but Peter Quill's story apparently wasn't supposed to end there.

Star-Lord returned to Earth, reunited with his grandfather, and traded galaxy-saving adventures for a much more ordinary life. Then Marvel made a very specific promise:

"The Legendary Star-Lord Will Return."

Three years later, we're still waiting. Chris Pratt hasn't officially been announced for Avengers: Doomsday, and Marvel hasn't revealed a Legendary Star-Lord movie or Disney+ series.

Leaked concept art suggested Peter Quill might be involved with Avengers: Secret Wars, although the Russo Brothers have said what appeared in that leak wasn't representative of their actual plans.

Star-Lord is one of the easiest characters on this list to bring back. He's on Earth, he's already an Avenger-adjacent cosmic hero, and Pratt spent years as one of the MCU's biggest stars.

Marvel explicitly told us he's returning. The question is whether Secret Wars finally makes good on that promise.

7. Monica Rambeau Is Trapped in an X-Men Reality

For all the problems The Marvels had, its post-credits scene delivered one of the Multiverse Saga's coolest surprises.

Monica Rambeau woke up in another reality after sealing a dimensional tear and found her mother alive. Except this wasn't the Maria Rambeau she knew. This version of Maria was Binary. Then Kelsey Grammer walked into the room as Beast.

Not just any Beast, either. Marvel gave him a much more comic-accurate appearance, immediately raising questions about what universe Monica had landed in and how these X-Men would connect to the larger Multiverse Saga.

This felt like a gigantic Avengers and X-Men setup. Oddly, we still don't have much evidence that it will be.

Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and Maria Rambeau haven't been confirmed for Doomsday. Marvel could obviously be keeping their appearances secret, but their absence from what we currently know about the movie makes the Marvels cliffhanger harder to read.

With the X-Men becoming increasingly important to Marvel's future, abandoning Monica in a mutant universe would be especially bizarre. If Doomsday doesn't address it, Secret Wars practically has to.

8. Blade Called Out to Dane Whitman

The second Eternals post-credits scene may be even more frustrating than the first. Kit Harington's Dane Whitman finally approached the Ebony Blade, the weapon tied to his comic book identity as Black Knight. Just as he prepared to touch it, an unseen man asked whether he was ready for what came with wielding the sword.

That voice belonged to Mahershala Ali as Blade. At the time, this looked like a clever way of connecting Black Knight to Marvel's upcoming Blade movie. At least one version of the troubled project appeared to involve Blade and Dane crossing paths.

Years of false starts followed, and Ali has now confirmed that he walked away from the role. That leaves Harington in an especially awkward position. Marvel introduced Dane's supernatural destiny, brought out the Ebony Blade, connected him directly to Blade, and then never continued the story.

There were rumblings that Blade could appear in Avengers: Secret Wars, but Ali's comments make that possibility look increasingly unlikely.

Unless Marvel completely reinvents its Blade plans, Dane Whitman's big moment may end up as one of the MCU's strangest dead ends.

9. The Ten Rings Are Sending a Signal to...Something

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings closed with a mystery that seemed tailor-made for the Multiverse Saga.

Shang-Chi and Katy met Wong, Captain Marvel, and Bruce Banner to examine the Ten Rings. The ancient weapons weren't behaving like anything the heroes had encountered before, and most importantly, they appeared to be transmitting a beacon.

But where was the signal going? There was good reason to suspect Kang and his Variants were originally part of the answer. Marvel appeared to be laying groundwork that could potentially connect the Ten Rings, Kamala Khan's bangles, and other mysterious artifacts to a much larger multiversal story.

Then Avengers: The Kang Dynasty disappeared along with Marvel's Kang-centered endgame. The good news is that Marvel has other options. The Ten Rings could still be connected to Fin Fang Foom and his homeworld of Kakaranthara, which would open up a very different corner of Shang-Chi's mythology.

Unfortunately, a direct continuation doesn't seem close. Destin Daniel Cretton has been busy with Naruto and potentially Spider-Man 5, leaving Shang-Chi's mysterious beacon transmitting into the MCU void for the time being.

Somebody really should answer that thing.

10. The Leader Warned Sam Wilson About Other Worlds

Captain America: Brave New World gave us one of Marvel's more interesting and weird attempts at teasing the future. Sam Wilson visits Samuel Sterns, a.k.a. The Leader, in prison, where the villain suddenly starts talking like he's been reading Marvel's upcoming release schedule.

He tells Captain America that "it's coming" because he's "seen it in the probabilities." Sterns then warns Sam that he'll have to protect Earth from other worlds.

The obvious implication is that he's talking about Incursions and the approaching multiversal conflict. The bigger question is how The Leader knows any of this.

Brave New World doesn't provide a satisfying explanation for why Sterns understands parallel realities or knows that worlds are headed toward a collision. The scene plays primarily as an advertisement for the next Avengers adventure rather than a natural extension of The Leader's story.

That's what makes it so weird. If Doomsday actually explains what Sterns saw and how he calculated it, the scene could gain some retroactive importance. If not, it will probably be remembered as Marvel telling audiences, "Hey, multiverse stuff is coming," despite us already knowing that from several other movies.

The MCU Has a Post-Credits Problem

None of these scenes are impossible to resolve. Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are exactly the kind of enormous crossover movies where Marvel can pull characters and plot threads out of storage and suddenly make them relevant again.

But the bigger issue is what these dangling post-credits scenes say about the Multiverse Saga itself. During the Infinity Saga, those little tags frequently felt like pieces of a larger puzzle. During the Multiverse Saga, too many of them have felt more like possibilities Marvel wanted to keep around in case it decided to use them later.

But, plans changed, movies underperformed, projects stalled, kang disappeared from the center of the story, and characters who looked important suddenly stopped showing up. Now Doctor Doom is coming, the Avengers are assembling again, and Secret Wars is waiting at the finish line.

Marvel doesn't need to spend twenty minutes checking every unresolved subplot off a list. But some of these stories deserve answers.