Marvel Studios has taken us on quite the ride with the Multiverse Saga, albeit one that’s been quite a bit bumpier than what we experienced during the Infinity Saga.
While this era of storytelling hasn’t been anywhere near as bad as some would lead you to believe, we’ve noticed a concerning trend with the MCU’s movies and TV shows: post-credits scenes featuring splashy cameos and still-unresolved cliffhangers.
With that in mind, we’re now taking a look back at 10 stingers that, as we head into Avengers: Doomsday this December, still haven’t been addressed or resolved. There are a few that might be touched on in some way, while we’d bet on others likely retaining their “cliffhanger” status for the foreseeable future.
You can find out which scenes we’ve singled out by clicking the “Next”https://comicbookmovie.com/”View List” buttons below.
10. Doctor Strange Returns To The Dark Dimension
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ends with the former Sorcerer Supreme opening his third eye. The idea seems to be that he’ll now head down a darker route, and in the sequel’s stinger, Strange is confronted by Clea.
She claims his actions have caused an Incursion and insists he join her in the Dark Dimension. We’re still not sure what this was setting up or what the scene means for Incursions in the MCU, but Doctor Strange 3 hasn’t been announced and definitely isn’t getting here before Avengers: Doomsday.
That means the movie will need to make sense of a cliffhanger that, on the surface, should have major Multiverse Saga implications. As things stand, we don’t even know if Benedict Cumberbatch and Charlize Theron are in Doomsday…
9. Meet Starfox
Eternals was neither a critical nor a commercial hit, as Marvel Studios expected. Still, there were clearly plans for a sequel, seeing as Eros (Harry Styles) and Pip the Troll (Patton Oswalt) show up in the mid-credits scene.
Starfox offers to help Makkari, Druig, and Thena find their missing friends and the stage is set for the heroes to track the Eternals down, along with the Celestials who created them. It had all the makings of an epic sequel, which, sadly, won’t happen.
That’s even been confirmed by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, leaving us with a huge, unresolved cliffhanger. As a result, a supporting turn from any of this lot in Avengers: Doomsday—or Avengers: Secret Wars—feels like wishful thinking, sadly.
8. Sharon Carter Breaks Bad
After lending Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes a hand in Madripoor, Sharon Carter is pardoned for her role in the events of Captain America: Civil War and rejoins the CIA. It’s then that The Falcon and The Winter Soldier confirmed that she’s the criminal Power Broker.
Being in the CIA again means she can sell government secrets, and this felt like a big deal…until it wasn’t. Marvel Studios hasn’t revisited the idea of Sharon being the Power Broker, missing a trick in Captain America: Brave New World last year.
We thought that Thunderbolts* or Ironheart might do something with this, but Sharon has completely fallen by the wayside. She’s a great character on the page, but that hasn’t proven to be the case on screen, much to the frustration of many fans.
7. The Council Of Kangs
We could spend all day on this one. For starters, Marvel Studios had to fire its Kang actor when Jonathan Majors was found guilty of assaulting a woman he met while shooting Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.
Filmmaker Peyton Reed had been tasked with taking Scott Lang from being a palette cleanser to a superhero who set the stage for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. The movie—shot largely on The Volume—wasn’t good and ultimately wasted Kang the Conqueror.
With it clear that fans didn’t like what they saw from this one, the studio started mulling over a pivot away from Kang. Majors’ legal issues sealed the deal, meaning we’ll likely never learn what the Council of Kangs had planned for the Multiverse beyond a throwaway line (if we’re lucky) in Avengers: Doomsday.
6. Hercules Debuts
Thor: Love and Thunder was another disappointing Marvel Studios sequel, with filmmaker Taika Waititi given too much freedom to run wild. The result was a silly, childish take on the God of Thunder that dropped the ball on more than one important storyline.
After Thor clashed with Russell Crowe’s camp Zeus, the post-credits scene set the stage for the villain’s son, Hercules, to make the Avenger pay for his actions. Brett Goldstein was cast as the character, and even now, we’re still mixed on that decision.
Unless Thor 5 becomes a reality, it’s hard to say what the future holds in store for Hercules, a character with heaps of potential on screen. The Russos are taking Thor seriously in Avengers: Doomsday, and surely won’t have room to deal with this potential clash.
5. The Legendary Star-Lord Will Return
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was a fitting end to filmmaker James Gunn’s trilogy and saw several characters ride off into the sunset. It appears that Star-Lord might be among them after the hero returned to Earth and reunited with his grandfather.
However, a post-credits scene promised us that, despite the fact that Peter Quill is currently chilling at home, “The Legendary Star-Lord Will Return.”
When? Chris Pratt still hasn’t been officially added to the Avengers: Doomsday cast, and Marvel Studios has yet to announce The Legendary Star-Lord movie or TV show we all expected would follow Vol. 3. Leaked concept art pointed to him appearing soon, but the Russos have claimed that it wasn’t representative of their plans.
4. Monica Rambeau Meets Beast
The Marvels is the MCU’s biggest box office flop to date, and while the Captain Marvel sequel had serious issues, we can’t deny that it had one of the most exciting post-credits scenes ever attached to a superhero movie.
Monica Rambeau wakes up in a parallel reality and comes face-to-face with Kelsey Grammer’s comic-accurate Beast. The X-Man is joined by her mother, Maria, who is revealed to be the mutant superhero known as Binary. What a cliffhanger.
In fairness to Marvel Studios, we have good reason to believe that this will factor into Avengers: Doomsday. The reason it’s still included here, though, is because Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and Maria Rambeau have not been confirmed to appear in the ensemble!
3. Jake Lockley Emerges
Moon Knight ended with Marc Spector and Steven Grant seemingly freed from Khonshu’s influence, only for us to learn that a third personality, the ultra-violent Jake Lockley, was still doing the Moon God’s bidding in secret.
There were hints throughout that Jake was unleashing violence on Moon Knight’s foes. Alas, aside from the fact that he talks Spanish and has no issue with murdering Arthur Harrow, we know absolutely nothing about this guy.
Moon Knight season 2 doesn’t appear to be in the works, but we’re optimistic that Oscar Isaac will return in Midnight Sons, assuming that’s not just a project that’s been made up by social media’s many scoopers.
2. Blade Meets Black Knight
Horrified that the woman he loves, Sersi, was taken from Earth by the Celestial Arishem, Eternals’ Dane Whitman seeks out the Ebony Blade. Before he can lift it, a voice off-screen asks if he’s ready for the responsibility that comes with it.
We’d later learn that the voice belonged to Mahershala Ali’s Blade. Since then, the Blade movie has failed to become a reality and appears to be trapped in development hell. At this time, it seems the idea was for the Daywalker to team up with the Black Knight.
Marvel Studios has wasted Kit Harington, and we fear this cliffhanger will forever remain unresolved as we head into the next Saga.
1. The Secret Of The Ten Rings
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ends with a mid-credits scene featuring the title character and Katy meeting with Wong, Captain Marvel, and Bruce Banner. They’re there to figure out what the deal is with the beacon embedded in the hero’s Ten Rings.
We have good reason to believe that this was tied to Kang; the villain and his Variants looked set to be revealed as the creators of the Ten Rings, Kamala Kang’s bangles, and more, but that idea died with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
Fortunately, a future movie can instead link them to Fin Fang Foom’s homeworld, Kakaranthara (which is what we’d hoped for in the first place). For now, though, this idea looks to have been shelved.