MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: 10 Most Disappointing Marvel Studios Post-Credit Scenes

Marvel Studios has become the master of post-credit stingers, but they don't get it right every time, and these efforts from the first few Phases of movies definitely failed to live up to fan expectations!

By JoshWilding - Oct 21, 2020 09:10 AM EST

Filed Under: Marvel Studios

Much to the disappointment of some comic book fans, Avengers: Endgame didn't feature a post-credits scene. There was a good reason for that, though, as the Russo Brothers wanted that movie to serve as an end of an era, hence why teasing what comes next just didn't feel right to them. Spider-Man: Far From Home resurrected the tradition, though, and Black Widow will likely continue it.

Looking back over the MCU's first eleven years, we've been treated to a lot of stingers from Marvel Studios, some of which were there solely for entertainment purposes and others that managed to set the stage for future adventures and major twists and turns we never could have seen coming.

Recently, we looked back at some of our favourite post-credits scenes in this shared world, but what about the ones that disappointed? Marvel Studios can't knock it out of the park every time, and while these weren't inherently bad, they did leave us walking out of the theater somewhat underwhelmed.

We'd love to hear your favourites down in the comments section, of course, but to check out what made the cut on our ranking, all you guys need to do is click on the "Next" button below!

10. Patience (Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017)

On the one hand, this was an undeniably enjoyable post-credits scene. It's a lot of fun and genuinely very funny, as Marvel Studios uses a recurring joke from Spider-Man: Homecoming to poke fun at the fans who diligently stick around for these extra scenes at the end of the credits.

Well, therein lies the problem, as this ultimately felt like a very underwhelming way to wrap up the first solo outing for the wall-crawler in the MCU. Surely something a little more exciting could have been used here, especially as Spidey's next appearance was booked in for Avengers: Infinity War.

On the plus side, Funko is now making a Pop based on this moment which should be a must-have for those of you who got a kick out of this otherwise disappointing use of Captain America.

9. Bruce Banner Falls Asleep (Iron Man 3, 2013)

The first movie to follow The Avengers was controversial for a number of reasons. After realising that humour was a key component in the success of these movies, Iron Man 3 really upped the laughs and even ended up making The Mandarin something of a punchline, much to the chagrin of comic book fans.

So, while Bruce Banner dozing off as he listens to Tony Stark's story may have been pretty amusing and a decent enough cameo, it wasn't that memorable or the best use of the character.

Teasing the real Mandarin's existence would have been much better, but it was instead down to that "All Hail The King" one-shot to drop some hints for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

8. Karl Mordo Breaks Bad (Doctor Strange, 2016)

At the end of Doctor Strange, a disgusted Karl Mordo wipes his hands with his friend upon realising that The Ancient One betrayed them and Strange has used the Time Stone to manipulate events to his liking. That left the character in an interesting place, but by the time the post-credits scene arrived, he had become an unhinged villain who suddenly wanted to wipe out all sorcerers.

While there was nothing wrong with setting the stage for Mordo to embrace his evil persona from the comic books, this felt too rushed and a tad forced, hence why it earns a place here.

Rather than teasing fans with this development so soon, it should have been saved for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness; instead, we'll catch up with him as a full-fledged baddie.

7. Wakanda Opens Its Borders (Black Panther, 2018)

On the one hand, there was nothing wrong with this scene and it was obviously cool to see T'Challa open Wakanda's borders to the rest of the world. The problem here, however, was that this was originally intended to be the movie's final scene and it being moved essentially made it a repeat of Black Panther's conversation with Shuri where Erik Killmonger was brought up.

Throw in the fact that we saw this in the movie's trailers, and it didn't exactly have a huge impact.

Or course, following the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman, this scene takes on something of a different feel and has the emotional, powerful impact it was clearly intended to have back in 2018.

6. Loki Returns (Thor, 2011)

At the time, the reveal that Loki was alive and well and seemingly in control of Dr. Erik Selvig was pretty cool, even if it is somewhat tame by today's impressive standards.

However, proving that Marvel Studios was still finding its feet, by the time The Avengers rolled around, this proved to be mostly irrelevant aside from getting Selvig to the right place.

We also already knew that Loki would return to plague Thor and Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the movie, so his resurrection was not exactly a shocker. Perhaps the plus side is that this did at least offer a first look at what was to come in Joss Whedon's The Avengers, something that massively excited fans.

5. Mac Gargan Hatches A Plan (Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017)

As post-credits scenes go, this felt more like a Sony Pictures decision than a Marvel Studios one. While fans remain optimistic that the Sinister Six are coming to the MCU, Mac Gargan approaching Adrian Toomes feels too on the nose, and wasn't even followed up on in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

In the comics, Gargan has a pretty cool origin story, but rushing it like this does the character a disservice and if we didn't know any better, we'd say this was a deleted scene from The Amazing Spider-Man 2!

However, if it ends up paying off in Spider-Man 3, then all will be forgiven...well, for the most part.

4. "Secret Invasion" (Spider-Man: Far From Home, 2019)

We're well aware that some fans loved this, but, for us, it was just pointless and confusing. Making Nick Fury a Skrull for the entirety of the movie just so he could have a "vacation" makes his interactions with Spider-Man worthless; had this been setting the stage for Secret Invasion, then that obviously would have been a completely different matter!

As it stands, though, everything that happened between Spidey and Fury didn't really count and if this was Marvel's way of revealing that Captain Marvel 2 will feature Fury in space, there are a million better ways that could be achieved. We didn't like this at all, but appreciate this might be a "best" for some fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Here's hoping Talos is a little less irritating moving forward, though, as this wasn't great.

3. "I'll Do It Myself" (Avengers: Age Of Ultron, 2015)

Avengers: Age of Ultron gets a bad rap, but Joss Whedon's sequel has a lot of fans. However, there's no getting around how underwhelming this particular post-credits scene was.

It felt like a rehash of what we saw at the end of The Avengers, and Thanos declaring, "Fine, I'll do it myself!" would have had a lot more impact had we had seen the Mad Titan in more than just Guardians of the Galaxy. It says a lot that the Russo Brothers have since retconned this scene and attempted to explain it away on a number of occasions.

Ultimately, it boils down to bad planning on Marvel's part, and getting that updated look at Thanos somewhat lost its impact after he played such a memorable role in the 2014 movie.

2. Captain Marvel's Arrival On Earth (Captain Marvel, 2019)

Hey, we're kind of surprised to see this scene here too, but honestly couldn't think of a better place for it. Following the release of Captain Marvel (and since that tease at the end of Avengers: Infinity War), we had all been speculating about how Carol Danvers would return to Earth and rumours ran rampant that a clash with Earth's Mightiest Heroes might be on the cards.

Instead, she just randomly appeared in the Avengers Compound and Avengers: Endgame failed to expand on this or show us how the team responded to her arrival on Earth. As a result, it's hard to get around the fact that this was ultimately a major let-down. Yes, she obviously tracked that pager's signal, but her sneaking up on Nat like this felt kind of goofy and cheesy.

That updated costume looked pretty cool, though!

1. The Giant Ant (Ant-Man And The Wasp, 2018)

Perhaps we're being too harsh, but what the heck was this?

After a game-changing mid-credits scene featuring the deaths of The Wasp, Janet Van Dyne, and Hank Pym, it's easy enough to understand why Marvel Studios wanted to add some levity to the proceedings, but a Captain Marvel tease totally unrelated to this adventure would have been better than a silly sequence showing that giant ant playing the drums.

When you also take into account the fact this was included in the trailers, it just makes it worse...

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19 Comments

TheWalkingCuban - 10/21/2020, 9:11 AM

bkmeijer2 - 10/21/2020, 9:11 AM

The patience, Bruce Banner falling asleep and the drumming ant were actually great scenes in my opinion. Just a fun extra for those staying in their seats, but something that can be skipped aswell.

Something that doesn't go for Captain Marvel arriving on Earth and Wakanda opening up to the world, those scenes are too important that should be in the movie.

Origame - 10/21/2020, 9:14 AM

Ok, so many of these don't understand the 2 credit scene thing. They started doing that not to give us 2 teases, but to give us a fun scene to leave the theater on. That first scene is supposed to be the one to get us hyped. The second one is just there for fun. If you don't like funny credits, that's fine. If you don't like this process and think they should both be teases, then ok. But this is consistent, and it feels like you're waiting for these credit scenes and wondering why they're funny.

globaltravels - 10/21/2020, 9:30 AM

That scene with Eric, Loki and the Space stone at the end of Thor was all kinds of hype.

99OPTIMISTPRIME - 10/21/2020, 9:36 AM

Most of the MCU post-credit scenes, have been pretty underwhelming. So if possible, take that Black Panther one off. T'Challa stepping up as an ambassador, was character development. RIP Chadwick Boseman.

JustAChillFan - 10/21/2020, 9:52 AM

When are we going to get the top 10 disappointing wilding posts?

MosquitoFarmer - 10/21/2020, 10:09 AM

I get the hate, but I'll stand by the Ant-Man And The Wasp end credit scene. With the very still house, the emergency dead broadcast on the TV, and the knowledge that Scott is trapped in the Quantum Realm, it's a haunting scenario. The ant playing the drums just further solidifies the thought that Scott is f***ed.

DeadClunge - 10/21/2020, 10:13 AM

8,5,3 & 2 were pretty good and perfect teases of what may come next imo

r1g0r - 10/21/2020, 12:47 PM

this article (like MUCH that comes out of JW's weak and feeble writing) just further solidifies the fact the people LOVE to complain, and JW especially.

i will re-iterate my standby advice: if you think it's so disappointing, do one yourself.

those who can, do.
those who can't do, teach.
those who can't do or teach, become critics.

Uhhhhhh - 10/21/2020, 4:01 PM

@r1g0r - Criticism is much more valuable than praise. It's what encourages improvement. There is nothing wrong with criticising something.

Uhhhhhh - 10/21/2020, 4:02 PM

@NoerGregorio - Unless it is just meanspirited. I didn't really get that vibe from this article.

r1g0r - 10/21/2020, 6:44 PM

@NoerGregorio -
frankly, i get that vibe from MOST of his articles, and especially anything DC-centric.
a good "journalist" is supposed to be objective and un-biased.

plus, he constantly does the "10 things" articles. it wasn't until i bitched him out repeatedly over them that he began to include the option to view as a list, instead of click-baiting the article.
again, not professional.

it's my opinion, and it's been formed after years of being on this website.

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MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: 10 Most Disappointing Marvel Studios Post-Credit Scenes

Marvel Studios has become the master of post-credit stingers, but they don't get it right every time, and these efforts from the first few Phases of movies definitely failed to live up to fan expectations!

10. Patience (Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017)

9. Bruce Banner Falls Asleep (Iron Man 3, 2013)

8. Karl Mordo Breaks Bad (Doctor Strange, 2016)

7. Wakanda Opens Its Borders (Black Panther, 2018)

6. Loki Returns (Thor, 2011)

5. Mac Gargan Hatches A Plan (Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017)

4. "Secret Invasion" (Spider-Man: Far From Home, 2019)

3. "I'll Do It Myself" (Avengers: Age Of Ultron, 2015)

2. Captain Marvel's Arrival On Earth (Captain Marvel, 2019)

1. The Giant Ant (Ant-Man And The Wasp, 2018)

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