‘Captain Marvel’: Post Credit Scenes Explained

Captain Marvel has officially opened in theaters nationwide, revealing a pair of post-credits scenes teasing the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Spoilers for Captain Marvel follow. Major spoilers!

Captain Marvel took place in 1995, giving the film opportunities to share post-credits sequences in both the past and future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, the sequel to Captain Marvel could inevitably have a similar approach to its film as a whole. “It’s interesting that you say that because the very first Kelly Sue DeConnick Captain Marvel comic I read is like traveling through the past and almost like a rewriting of her origin story – which, this has some elements of that,” Captain Marvel co-director Anna Boden told Comicbook.com.(Photo: Marvel Entertainment)

Let’s take a look at what those post-credits scenes were…

Mid-Credits

In the mid-credits section of Captain Marvel, moviegoers were treated to their first extended clip from Avengers: Endgame. It appears the clip in Captain Marvel is going to take place extremely early on in the upcoming sequel to Avengers: Infinity War. 

Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Bruce Banner, and James Rhodes are seen at the Avengers facility in upstate New York. There, they have the pager which Nick Fury dropped in the Avengers: Infinity War post-credits scene, which Carol Danvers had provided to him in the 90s to reach her in case of dire emergencies. As half of the universe was disappearing before Nick Fury’s eye, he made what seems to be the first call to the tremendously powerful super hero.

Steve, Natasha, Rhodey, and Bruce are trying to figure out what this pager was doing and hooking it up to new batteries as a means to keep it going. However, the pager suddenly stops, and the remaining Avengers are puzzled.

When Natasha and Steve declare they want to get the pager turned back on, Natasha turns around and sees that Captain Marvel has answered the call. She has quickly arrived at the Avengers facility with one question: “Where’s Fury?”

Explained

Given the beard on Captain America in the footage, it appears this moment will happen early in the movie and before most of the footage shown in trailers. It also seems to confirm suspicions that a character was edited out of the most recent promo for Avengers: Endgame. 

Moving forward, Brie Larson will be director by Joe Russo and Anthony Russo for her next big screen outing in Avengers: Endgame, this May. Joe Russo previously offered up some insight on what to expect there.

“Well for us, with super powerful characters, it’s always about the flaw in the character, how is the character human? How is the character accessible?” Joe Russo told ComicBook.com. “I have a hard time with comic book characters, I did as a child, that were too powerful because I never feared for them, I never felt like I could relate to them. I think that’s why traditionally Batman is the most popular DC comic character, he’s human. So, it’s important for us when we’re working with uber-powerful characters, to understand their vulnerability on a psychological level.”

Anthony Russo chimed in to add on to that point. “And that’s of course, and then we follow, the way we challenge a character like that is taking them through scenarios that make things more complicated on that vulnerability,” he said. “And challenge that vulnerability.”

“Or can we weaken them in some way in which they have to overcome that weakness to succeed,” Joe Russo concluded.

Post-Credits

The actual post-credits scene of Captain Marvel was more of a fun stinger than any cliffhanger full of teases.

The final tag on Captain Marvel does, more than anything, connect a couple of dots for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After Nick Fury decides to move forward in attempting to create The Avengers Initiative, Goose the Flerken is left behind in his office. Goose hops up on Nick Fury’s desk, begins coughing as though he has a hairball, and dishes the Tesseract out onto Nick Fury’s desk.

Explained

The importance of the scene is minimal as the future for the Tesseract is already known by fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

The moment of Goose yacking up the Tesseract onto Fury’s desk reveals how the future Director of SHIELD came to possess the item, in the first place. Before Marvel’s The Avengers, Fury was seen with the Tesseract in a post-credits scene for Thor showing Doctor Selvig the same item. How he obtained it was unknown, as Howard Stark was known to have found it after Captain America: The First Avenger. 

Later, the Tesseract would play a huge role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Loki would use it to open a wormhole above New York City and it would later be revealed to hold the Space Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones which Thanos needed to wipe out half of the universe. 

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