The Thunderbolts* Post-Credits Scene Spells Doom for One Marvel Superhero Team

Spoilers ahead for the plot, ending, and post-credits scene in Thunderbolts*.

If you’ve been wondering about that pesky asterisk in the title Thunderbolts*, the movie’s closing credits explain why it’s there — followed by a post-credits scene that expands on its implications. Marvel’s last stinger, the one that played after Captain America: Brave New World, involved people standing around and speculating about what team-building and multiversal shenanigans might occur before the next big crossover, Avengers: Doomsday. This time, we actually see the needle move significantly in that regard, in a three-minute sequence (Marvel’s longest tag to date) that lays the MCU’s cards on the table and introduces some incredibly important players: Marvel’s first family, the Fantastic Four.

By the end of the movie, the surviving Thunderbolts — Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bob “The Sentry” Reynolds (Lewis Pullman), Congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and John “Not quite Captain America” Walker (Wyatt Russell) — find themselves standing alongside CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) at an impromptu press conference. Valentina, who’s been the subject of impeachment proceedings for her illicit operations — including hiring members of the Thunderbolts for off-the-books missions — has been searching for a successful new defense project in the Avengers’ absence to get the government off her back. Meanwhile, the Thunderbolts have been looking for people to take them seriously. So, despite Valentina trying to kill the scraggly B-team to tie up loose ends — by way of unleashing the villainous Void, the Sentry’s alter-ego —  they come to an uneasy compromise. The Thunderbolts decide to keep her involvement in the Void’s destruction quiet, in exchange for her introducing them to the world as “The New Avengers.” The movie’s closing credits flash the original title on screen, then tears away the word “Thunderbolts*” like a comic book page, giving way to the squad’s new moniker.

For comic fans, it wasn’t hard to guess that this rebrand was coming. After the 2005 comic event Civil War — partially adapted by the MCU as the Captain America threequel — the Avengers split into an “authentic” team (aka the New Avengers, though no one calls them that in-world), and the government-sanctioned Mighty Avengers. The post-credits scene of Thunderbolts* hints at a similar schism, albeit with Valentina’s CIA-authorized group taking on the former title.

Several months after the events of the film, the group gathers in the former Avengers HQ (now the Valentina-owned “Watchtower”) in their new slick black-and-red team uniforms to discuss their latest enemy: copyright infringement. They mention that Captain America/Sam Wilson has filed for the rights to the Avengers name, allowing him to use it for any team he assembles. Who else would be on that team isn’t clear yet (other than his loyal sidekick Joaquin Torres, the new Falcon), but in the meantime, the Red Guardian has decided to skirt potential IP issues by donning a garishly colored uniformed with a “New Avengerz” logo — yes, with a “z.”

But there isn’t much time to bicker. The team is alerted to a “space crisis” and an “extra-dimensional ship” entering the atmosphere. A satellite image flashes onscreen, showing a retro-futuristic rocket heading for Earth. The rocket slowly turns, revealing a distinct “4” logo on its hull — a beat accompanied by Michael Giacchino’s mischievous orchestral score for the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

While we don’t actually see any members of the Fantastic Four, it’s a safe bet that this scene depicts them making their way over to the mainline Marvel universe (“Earth-616,” which we’ve been following since 2008’s Iron Man) after the events of their solo film, which appears to be set in its own distinct, mid-century-stylized reality. Next year’s Avengers movie, Doomsday, will set up the crossover event Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027, which, like its comics namesake, will probably follow the collision (and possible destruction) of multiple universes. (These collisions — also called  “incursions” — have already been established in films like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.) All of this is to say that the sight of the Fantastic Four entering the 616 universe likely spells doom, pun intended, for how their cinematic reintroduction will go come July 25th. They may be making their way over to Earth-616 to seek help with battling some multiversal threat — or perhaps even to seek refuge after the total destruction of their reality.

The Fantastic Four’s arrival also complicates things on Earth: just how many superhero teams are going to be running around when Avengers: Doomsday begins? You have the aforementioned New Avengers/z, as well as any Avengers team Sam Wilson might assemble. We don’t know who’ll be on the latter’s roster yet, but with Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Shuri/Black Panther (Letitia Wright), and Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) returning for Doomsday, they seem like probable contenders. Plus, the post-credits scene of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings saw Shang-Chi strategizing about a threat of unknown origin with Wong (Benedict Wong), Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and a mysteriously de-Hulked Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). That may be another hint as to who we’ll see bickering about who gets to lead the charge against multiversal incursions.

That’s not all. There’s also the question of the Avengers junior league, which has been slowly taking shape in the margins of Marvel’s movies and streaming shows — presumably to Nick Fury’s chagrin, as the man still in charge of assessing global threat response. This team hasn’t quite come to fruition yet, but the ending of The Marvels sees teenage hero Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) approach Hawkeye protégé Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) in distinctly Fury-esque fashion, with the offer of a team-up. She also mentions potentially recruiting Ant-Man’s daughter, Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), and it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to assume other young heroes like the Scarlet Witch’s son Wiccan (Joe Locke) and super soldier Isiah Bradley’s grandson Eli (Elijah Richardson) are on her radar, as members of the Young Avengers in the comics.

That’s three potential Avengers teams on the ground, plus the Fantastic Four arriving from their own dimension, which crowds the field even before you consider the numerous returning characters from Fox’s now quarter-century-old X-Men films, who will make up about a third of the Avengers: Doomsday cast as residents of their own universe sure to clash with the 616 before long.

There’s also the significant chance that still-unannounced characters might return in some capacity in Doomsday, too, from Spider-Man, to Doctor Strange, to the new Guardians of the Galaxy. One only hopes that with major comic players like the mutants, the Fantastic Four, and some of the original Avengers crowding the screen, the former Thunderbolts will have enough room to breathe — the anti-heroic misfit team really is such a delightful new addition to the MCU.

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