Spider-Man: Far From Home does a lot of the post-Avengers: Endgame heavy lifting for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, while also managing to thoroughly progress the singular story of Tom Holland's Peter Parker / Spider-Man. The fact the film pulls off both tasks well should be enough - but Spider-Man: Far From Home gets even more ambitious in its goals.

Marvel fans who have headed out to see Spider-Man: Far From Home have been keen about taking the movie's reveals and breaking down their larger implications, and it's clear that this Avengers: Endgame epilogue story does quite a bit to set up the MCU's cosmic future.

WARNING - MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW!

Word of Spider-Man: Far From Home's post-credits scenes has spread like wildfire, as Marvel fans couldn't believe the level of epic twists those short scenes throw onto the table. Actor J.K. Simmons returning as the MCU version of J. Johah Jameson was great, but the after-credits scene is what blew the universe of he MCU wide open!

That second post-credits scene revealed that the Nick Fury and Maria Hill that Peter Parker / Spider-Man worked with on the Mysterio mission are actually Skrull leader Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and his wife Soren (Sharon Blynn). It's further revealed that Talos is reporting to the real Nick Fury, who is currently up in space commanding a vessel populated by a crew of Skrulls. That brief but pivotal reveal has now open the floodgates of speculation as to what Nick Fury's presence in space means, with two clear frontrunning theories:

Agent of SWORD

In Marvel Comics, continuing threats of extraterrestrial nature eventually lead SHIELD to create a sister branch called SWORD, which is tasked with the mission to protect the Earth from alien threats. It was headed by a character named Abigail Brand, and stationed in an orbital space station called the Peak. Eventually SHIELD and SWORD fond themselves at odds. It would make sense for SWORD to appear in the MCU now, as the invasions by Thanos and the event of The Blip would understandably make Nick Fury think of "Homeland Security" on a much larger, galactic, scale.

The caveat with this theory that Spider-Man: Far From Home introduced the MCU version of SWORD is that Fox was actually the owner of SWORD and its characters (it debuted in Astonishing X-Men), so this twist in the MCU would have to have been made only after the Disney/Fox deal was done - and there's slim chance it went down like that. The other potential problem with it is that Fury is a aboard a vessel full of Skrulls, and has Skrull operatives already going undercover for him. That all may suggest a very different event unfolding...

Secret Invasion

Ever since Captain Marvel's introduction of Skrulls to the MCU, a lot of fans have long theorized that the famous Marvel Comics storyline "Secret Invasion" could be the next big MCU crossover. That theory got a little murky once it was revealed that Captain Marvel was taking a very different approach to the Skrulls, depicting them as refugees trying to escape slaughter by the fascist and fanatical Kree. Marvel Studios execs still kept the door to Secret Invasion open after Captain Marvel, with Kevin Feige teasing:

"Just like not all humans are bad, and not all humans are good, I think Skrulls probably have a variety of moralities amongst them," Feige told ComicBook.com. "When they can do what they can do, it probably gets very tempting. So, it's fun to have introduced this concept and see where it goes."

However, Spider-Man: Far From Home's final post-credits scene may suggest a different route: What if Nick Fury is the mastermind of a different sort of "Secret Invasion" now?

Now that Fury knows what threats are truly out there in the galaxy - and given the multitude of examples we've had about what kind of shady spymaster Fury is - it would make sense for the SHIELD director to get proactive about galactic security. As a spymaster, Fury would need a network of galactic spies to keep tabs on things and discover threats, and who better than the Skrulls. Captain Marvel revealed just how indebted and loyal the Skrulls are to Fury, and Far From Home made quick but important tease that threats like Kree sleeper cells are still lurking out there. It could very well be the espionage chess game between the Skrulls and Kree sleepers that constitutes the MCU "Secret Invasion" storyline - and it could all conceivably be build up to a full-blown MCU Kree-Skrull war.

What did you make of Spider-Man: Far From Home's final post-credits scene? Let us know in the comments!

Spider-Man: Far From Home and Avengers: Endgame are now in theaters, with Endgame hitting digital on July 30th and Blu-ray on August 13th. Captain Marvel is now available digitally and on home media.