Last year’s Marvel movies were largely about getting all the pieces in place for Avengers: Doomsday, and Thunderbolts* was no exception. The Thunderbolts* post-credits scene revealed there are not one but two teams vying for the “Avengers” codename, with Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes apparently bickering over whose team gets to keep it. More importantly, it also confirmed that the Fantastic Four team is coming into the main MCU reality (dubbed 616), because their ship is seen flying into Earth’s atmosphere.
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Avengers: Doomsday‘s directors, the Russo brothers, shot the post-credits scene themselves roughly a month before Thunderbolts*‘ release. Most viewers are assuming it’s actually set partway through Doomsday; dialogue suggests there’s some sort of crisis in space, which will presumably be introduced in the film’s first act. But there’s actually another subtle detail in the Thunderbolts* post-credits scene with even more significance for the Multiverse Saga as a whole.
The New Avengers’ Watchtower Can Monitor Interdimensional Threats
The post-credits scene is set in the New Avengers’ Watchtower (formerly Avengers Tower), which has clearly been kitted out with some pretty sophisticated threat detection systems. These warn the Thunderbolts / New Avengers that an object has entered Earth’s atmosphere, and sensors quickly identify that its interdimensional in nature. That’s when an image forms, showing the recognizable logo of the Fantastic Four and confirming that Marvel’s First Family will be making their way to Earth-616. But that main revolution obscures a more surprising fact; that the Thunderbolts can even identify interdimensional threats to begin with.
There are two implications. The first is that there have been more interdimensional threats affecting Earth-616 than we thought; until now, we’d thought Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness were the only times other dimensions had manifested on Earth-616. Neither of these incidents would have given scientists a chance to analyze multiversal travelers in enough detail to figure out how to identify an interdimensional threat the instant it emerges. The most likely explanation is that Doomsday opens with more dimensional jumps, giving more data.
The second implication is even more curious, though. It’s apparently possible to identify that an object or person does not originate from this dimension. The comics have occasionally hinted that molecules from every dimension resonate at a slightly different frequency, allowing for this kind of detection, but we haven’t seen anything like it in the MCU until now. It’s a smart addition to the MCU multiverse’s pseudo-science, and it may even explain how reality will be put right after the events of Avengers: Secret Wars.
Which Multiversal Travelers Will Be Encountered Before the Fantastic Four?
We know at least three different realities will cross over in Avengers: Doomsday (possibly four, as we may well see Doctor Doom’s reality too). Earth-616 is naturally the main location, the Fantastic Four dimension is pretty much guaranteed, but the third is the most curious; a timeline spinning out of Fox’s X-Men movies, allowing Doomsday to bring back several X-Men cast and characters. This means the most likely interdimensional travelers are from the X-Men timeline – and that in itself fits with several major Doomsday theories.
As noted, relatively few films in the Multiverse Saga have seen other dimensions cross into Earth-616. Instead, most have been about Earth-616 characters hopping into other timelines, a smart way of using our familiarity with the mainstream MCU to introduce us to the strangeness of the wider multiverse. One good example is The Marvels, where the post-credits scene saw Monica Rambeau enter an X-Men timeline. As many have noted, her very presence there risks causing an incursion where the two realities collide, which could well be the “space problem” also mentioned in Thunderbolts*‘ post-credits scene.
Little by little, we’re getting more of a sense of the plot of Avengers: Doomsday. It’s quite ironic that the various post-credits scenes seem to be the most important clues to date, and that by piecing them together we can propose some pretty interesting theories that seem highly likely. It surely won’t be long before we get a proper Doomsday trailer, which will provide more evidence and indicate whether all these theories are true.
When do you think we’ll get the Avengers: Doomsday trailer? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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