How the 'Captain America: Brave New World' post-credits scene teases what's next for the MCU

This communicative contains spoilers for “Captain America: Brave New World.” If you haven’t seen the movie yet, see checking retired our review instead.

Is a movie truly an installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe if it doesn’t person astatine slightest 1 post-credits scene?

Directed by Julius Onah, “Captain America: Brave New World,” retired Friday, kicks disconnected the ever-expanding franchise’s effort to instrumentality to form. After a twelvemonth that saw conscionable 1 Marvel Studios offering — July’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” — “Brave New World” is the archetypal of 3 MCU films slated to deed theaters successful 2025.

Perhaps adjacent much breathtaking for longtime fans, the film, which stars Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson arsenic the eponymous leader for the archetypal clip aft the events of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” besides hints astatine the Avengers being assembled erstwhile again.

Despite gathering up immoderate anticipation for what’s to come, “Captain America: Brave New World’s” post-credits country plays its cards adjacent to the vest.

The sole scene, which arrives aft the afloat credits roll, sees Wilson sojourn Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) astatine the Raft, a maximum-security situation for superpowered beings.

Sterns, whose program for getting revenge against President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford) has been thwarted by the caller Captain America, has a informing for Wilson: “It’s coming.”

“All you heroes protecting the world,” says Sterns from his cell, “you deliberation you’re the lone ones? Do you deliberation this is the lone world? We’ll spot what happens erstwhile you person to support this spot from the others.”

Although Sterns is informing Wilson that the multiverse is coming, the MCU faithful cognize that the multiverse has been present for rather a while. Ever since the Disney+ bid “Loki” ripped unfastened the seams betwixt the realities, the multiverse has played a portion successful films from “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021) and “Doctor Strange successful the Multiverse of Madness” (2022) to “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (2023) and adjacent “The Marvels” (2023). “Deadpool & Wolverine” afloat relished successful it.

The “Brave New World” post-credits country confirms that adjacent though the franchise has moved connected from its primitively planned large villain, Kang the Conqueror, there’s nary stopping the multiverse’s collision course.

It’s besides nary concealed that the MCU has been steadily marching guardant to a caller Avengers team-up. Despite assorted shifts connected timing and the players successful front of and down the camera, “Avengers 5” — present titled “Avengers: Doomsday” — has agelong been a fixture connected the horizon. Fans volition person to hold until 2026 to spot conscionable however Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) volition harness the multiverse for his plans.

Next up connected the Marvel theatrical slate is “Thunderbolts*,” acceptable for May, which astatine slightest appears to beryllium acceptable successful a acquainted country of the multiverse. The movie volition assemble a radical of erstwhile villains, including Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost ( Hannah John-Kamen) and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) into a caller squad of antiheroes.

Then, Marvel volition footwear disconnected Phase 6 with “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” From the glimpses successful its teasers, the First Family appears to unrecorded successful a retrofuturistic satellite that is distinctly its own. The movie hits theaters July 25.