United At Last

The last year has been a very exciting one for Marvel fans indeed. With the introduction of Spiderman and Black Panther into the MCU, accompanied by a Planet Hulk movie successfully billed as Thor Ragnorok. All of this has come to a crescendo with Avengers: Infinity War, when the long anticipated Thanos showed up and successfully wiped out half of all life from the universe, including some of it’s most popular heroes. Whilst much of this will probably be resolved on screen in next year’s Avengers 4, the one event which has truly excited Marvel fans everywhere has not taken place on the silver screen at all, that being Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

Boardroom decisions are rarely interesting affairs for comic book fans, but this one has sparked the imagination of every Marvel fan since the prospect was first announced. If played right it will allow many dedicated readers to see some of their all time favourite characters fight alongside earth’s mightiest heroes, and in some cases against them.

The comic bust of the 90’s forced Marvel to sell off many of it’s film rights to different studios. Fox took the lion’s share of many characters, including Captain America, Daredevil, X-Men and The Fantastic Four. The rights of the first two characters reverted back to Marvel as Fox did not actively use them after a five year period. The later two however, were used extensively throughout the first decade of the 21st Century to varying levels of success. The X-men gained a following thanks to Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and the Fantastic Four, well you know the rest. We’re still waiting for a faithful interpretation of Doctor Doom.

But this merger could change all that. The fact that Fox currently has the rights to characters who have played critical roles in the wider Marvel Comics universe over the last few decades will certainly open up on screen possibilities that were only dreams until now. A faithful Secret Invasion storyline comes to mind, as well as Avengers vs X-Men, which would no doubt make billions at the box office. But in the short term every Marvel fan is highly anticipating how this development will effect the iconic end credits scenes of these movies, especially those of Avengers 4. It is common knowledge that these have been the highlight of each Marvel film for many moviegoers, to get them excited for the next instalment. With this in mind here are a few scenarios which I think could be the perfect scenes to end out Phase 3 and launch Phase 4.

1. A Fantastic Return

One idea that has been banded about by different YouTubers is the idea that the first part of the MCU Fantastic Four movie should be set in the 1960’s. This would open up the idea that the four’s iconic space mission would launch them into the negative zone and they would end up on present day earth on the other side. The re-entry of their craft splashing into the Hudson river whilst the Avengers are recovering after their forth movie could well be an exciting point to end on. It would be ever better if Hank Pim could recognise the insignia from the rocket and say “It can’t be!” before The Thing rips the door off. Such a scene would ramp up anticipation for the stand alone Fantastic Four movie, and would not require too much additional pre production planning.

2. Doom’s Entrance

One of the most iconic Marvel villains is none other than Dr Doom, a genius who has held the infinity gauntlet and has danced with various Marvel characters over the years in his quest for power and dominance. Fans have longed for his appearance in the MCU for the last few years and making his debut in an end credits sequence couldn’t be more fitting. You could take a few cameras to Corvin Castle in Romania and film a few establishing shots of Latveria before a studio scene in which the armoured fist of Doctor Doom slams down on his stone throne. I imagine the Marvel crew will need a bit more time to design his costume before we get a full appearance of the character. We don’t want to see him messed up on screen for a forth time.

3. A Quick Handshot

Another fan favourite which could have a cameo in Avengers 4 is none other than Wolverine. This will be harder for fans to stomach due to Hugh Jackman’s long tenure in the role. It’s this very reason why he should also not be featured in the MCU for a good number of years. But maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for a quick handshot of his claws coming out in an end credits stinger. You wouldn’t need to cast the actor, only a hand model, and fans would be begging for a fight with the Hulk from the second he turns round the fight whatever comes before him. We’d all be watching the subsequent films only to see when he will make his first full appearance.

4. Phillip Master’s Purchase

One of the great mysteries of Phase 3 which was established in Spiderman: Homecoming has been who bought Stark Tower after the Avengers moved out to Upstate New York? Whilst many have hoped that this will become the Baxter building for the Fantastic Four, it could well go though another tenant before then. What if an end credits scene showed the keys being given over to Philip Masters, who’s supervillan name is The Puppet Master. This would set up another long-term villain for Phase 4 and potentially give us a sniff of the first Fantastic Four movie’s plot, that of dealing with an individual who aims to control others and divide the first family against themselves.

5. Galactus

So far all these scenarios have been earth bound, but what about the cosmic realm? It will certainly be the setting of the meaty moments of Avengers 4, so why not have an end credits scene there too? The best one I could think of would be one where Norman Rad hears the voice of Galactus in his head. He would then turn silver as he was told that earth would be their next target. Setting up both The Silver Surfer and Galactus as future villains will establish the next big saga in the pipeline, and may make up for the 2007 abomination Rise of The Silver Surfer in which The Devourer Of Worlds was depicted as a giant cloud as opposed to his human form from the comics.

6. A Skrull Reveal

The Secret Invasion storyline may be just around the corner in the MCU, with Captain Marvel taking place in the Kree/Skrull war there are bound to be repercussions of this storyline later on. The most obvious set up for this will be for one of the killed off heroes (yes, that will happen in Avengers 4) gradually turning into a green skrull in an end credits scene to prove to us that the real hero is still out there somewhere. This stinger would certainly set the scene for phase 4, with the heroes not knowing who they should trust. Marvel now has the Super Skrulls at their disposal too, which will hopefully give us a faithful adaptation of the source material.

7. Deadpool Shows Up

Alternatively everyone’s favourite merc with the mouth could make a surprise cameo in the end credits. This could be in the form of walking into Nick Furry’s office to dressing up in an Elsa outfit and announcing that the deal’s gone through. He could even accidentility zap himself into the MCU after fixing the timeline in his own 2nd movie. Whatever they decide to do with him it will be a nice comedic touch after an undoubfully emotional and high stakes movie. This would also explode fan forums and get them speculating as to where else we could see him in the MCU in the future.

Whatever lies in store for us in the next Avengers movie it will certainly be unexpected, after all we all know who we think will get killed off and some of us may be right. But with this deal now going through we may find that those who go out may be those we least expect, and who could replace them may have been swapped round to suit the narrative as well as the actors contracts. We may not see who we want on screen for a good few years yet.

1. A Fantastic Return

One idea that has been banded about by different YouTubers is the idea that the first part of the MCU Fantastic Four movie should be set in the 1960’s. This would open up the idea that the four’s iconic space mission would launch them into the negative zone and they would end up on present day earth on the other side. The re-entry of their craft splashing into the Hudson river whilst the Avengers are recovering after their forth movie could well be an exciting point to end on. It would be ever better if Hank Pim could recognize the insignia from the rocket and say “It can’t be!” before The Thing rips the door off. Such a scene would ramp up anticipation for the stand alone Fantastic Four movie, and would not require too much additional pre production planning.

2. Doom’s Entrance

One of the most iconic Marvel villains is none other than Dr Doom, a genius who has held the infinity gauntlet and has danced with various Marvel characters over the years in his quest for power and dominance. Fans have longed for his appearance in the MCU for the last few years and making his debut in an end credits sequence couldn’t be more fitting. You could take a few cameras to Corvin Castle in Romania and film a few establishing shots of Latveria before a studio scene in which the armoured fist of Doctor Doom slams down on his stone throne. I imagine the Marvel crew will need a bit more time to design his costume before we get a full appearance of the character. We don’t want to see him messed up on screen for a forth time.

3. A Quick Handshot

Another fan favourite which could have a cameo in Avengers 4 is none other than Wolverine. This will be harder for fans to stomach due to Hugh Jackman’s long tenure in the role. It’s this very reason why he should also not be featured in the MCU for a good number of years. But maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for a quick handshot of his claws coming out in an end credits stinger. You wouldn’t need to cast the actor, only a hand model, and fans would be begging for a fight with the Hulk from the second he turns round the fight whatever comes before him. We’d all be watching the subsequent films only to see when he will make his first full appearance.

4. Phillip Master’s Purchase

One of the great mysteries of Phase 3 which was established in Spiderman: Homecoming has been who bought Stark Tower after the Avengers moved out to Upstate New York? Whilst many have hoped that this will become the Baxter building for the Fantastic Four, it could well go though another tenant before then. What if an end credits scene showed the keys being given over to Philip Masters, who’s supervillain name is The Puppet Master. This would set up another long-term villain for Phase 4 and potentially give us a sniff of the first Fantastic Four movie’s plot, that of dealing with an individual who aims to control others and divide the first family against themselves.

5. Galactus

So far all these scenarios have been earth bound, but what about the cosmic realm? It will certainly be the setting of the meaty moments of Avengers 4, so why not have an end credits scene there too? The best one I could think of would be one where Norman Rad hears the voice of Galactus in his head. He would then turn silver as he was told that earth would be their next target. Setting up both The Silver Surfer and Galactus as future villains will establish the next big saga in the pipeline, and may make up for the 2007 abomination Rise of The Silver Surfer in which The Devourer Of Worlds was depicted as a giant cloud as opposed to his human form from the comics.

6. A Skrull Reveal

The Secret Invasion storyline may be just around the corner in the MCU, with Captain Marvel taking place in the Kree/Skrull war there are bound to be repercussions of this storyline later on. The most obvious set up for this will be for one of the killed off heroes (yes, that will happen in Avengers 4) gradually turning into a green skrull in an end credits scene to prove to us that the real hero is still out there somewhere. This stinger would certainly set the scene for phase 4, with the heroes not knowing who they should trust. Marvel now has the Super Skrulls at their disposal too, which will hopefully give us a faithful adaptation of the source material.

7. Deadpool Shows Up

Alternatively everyone’s favourite merc with a mouth could make a surprise cameo in the end credits. This could be in the form of walking into Nick Furry’s office to dressing up in an Elsa outfit and announcing that the deal’s gone through. He could even accidentally zap himself into the MCU after fixing the timeline in his own 2nd movie. Whatever they decide to do with him it will be a nice comedic touch after an undoubtedly emotional and high stakes movie. This would also explode fan forums and get them speculating as to where else we could see him in the MCU in the future.

Whatever lies in store for us in the next Avengers movie it will certainly be unexpected, after all we all know who we think will get killed off and some of us may be right. But with this deal now going through, we may find that those who go out may be those we least expect, and who could replace them may have been swapped round to suit the narrative as well as the actors contracts. We may not see who we want on screen for a good few years yet.