After the jam-packed story of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marvel does what it does best and teased some major developments for the MCU with a pair of post-credit scenes. One appearing mid-credits and the other at the very end, we’re going to break down each scene and what it may mean for the MCU below. SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME.
Ever since Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury appeared in the final moments of 2008’s Iron Man to tell Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark about the Avengers, Marvel fans have known that if they leave their seats before all the credits roll they could miss out on monumental reveals or, in some cases, just a funny scene to make you leave smiling. That tradition continues in Spider-Man: No Way Home, so let’s discuss both of the movie’s post-credit scenes.
Squeezing in one more villain
The first post-credit scene comes mid-way through the credits and manages to squeeze one more classic Spidey character into No Way Home — Tom Hardy’s Venom. Thanks to the post-credit scene in October’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage, we already knew that Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and his favorite symbiote had made their way into the Tom Holland’s Spider-Man universe, but it wasn’t clear how that may impact Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Hardy does not appear throughout the actual movie’s story, instead being saved for this stinger that sees him at a bar in Mexico talking to a bartender (Ted Lasso’s Cristo Fernández) and getting the low down of what is going on in this universe. He crudely surmises many of the main events of the MCU, referring to Iron Man as a guy in a tin suit and Thanos as a purple alien who loves stone (Eddie takes issue with this considering his own alien has more of an affinity for eating people). Venom is of course on hand to throw in some fun commentary.
At the end of the scene, Eddie/Venom is being transported back to his universe by the spell used at the end of the movie. However, a bit of black symbiote goo lands on the bar and just before the scene ends we see it move. So, we can probably now officially welcome Venom to the MCU.
It’ll be exciting to see how this bit of symbiote figures into future MCU titles. Will they stick with the classic storyline and have it interact with Spider-Man (Tom Holland’s future as Spider-Man isn’t set in stone, but would be surprising for another movie not to be in the cards) or will Marvel change things up and have other characters dealing with the symbiote? Should be fun to see.
The Doctor is in (the multiverse)
Thanks to Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home, we know that the multiverse is a big part of Marvel’s Phase 4. Doctor Strange’s experience trying to contain the multiverse in No Way Home is going to lead directly into his next movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. So, for the final post-credits scene, Marvel told fans that Doctor Strange will return by showing what could very well be the first trailer for the sorcerer’s next adventure.
Just to go over the highlights of the footage show, after some narration from Doctor Strange that we heard early in No Way Home about the multiverse, we see him track down Wanda (Elizabeth Moss). To her surprise, Doctor Strange isn’t interested in what happened in Westview (the central story of WandaVision), but instead wants her help as he tries to address an emerging problem with the multiverse.
In addition to some trippy looking set pieces, we also get to see Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo return, warning Doctor Strange that the greatest threat to their world is in fact, Doctor Strange. We see exactly what he means as the trailer ends with Strange facing off against an evil-looking version of himself.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is scheduled to release in theaters on May 6.
