Marvel Studios just released its first post-credits scene in almost 12 months, and it turned up in a place few fans expected. The studio made the stinger a signature of modern superhero storytelling, training audiences to wait through every credit roll for one last surprise. That habit went unrewarded for nearly a year, as every Marvel Studios release since last July rolled credits without a bonus scene, a list that includes Eyes of Wakanda, Marvel Zombies, Wonder Man, Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, and The Punisher: One Last Kill.
X-Men '97 broke the streak, and its post-credits scene is absolutely wild. Season 2, Episode 4, Rise of Apocalypse - Part II, ends with a surprise scene that reunites Wolverine with two Avengers and points straight at next week’s episode, which cracks open the mystery of his Weapon X origins. It is the studio’s first credits scene since The Fantastic Four: First Steps ended with a cloaked Doctor Doom in July 2025, and it may be one of the best uses of the format in years.
The stinger finds Logan in Paris, where he meets Captain America, voiced once again by Josh Keaton, and Black Widow, who makes her debut in the ’90s animated continuity. The three trade memories of a mission they shared 50 years earlier before Cap hands over a dossier marked "Weapon X," the covert program that bonded adamantium to Wolverine’s bones. Both heroes urge Logan not to chase the organization alone, but he tells them he already has backup.
That backup presumably means the X-Men, and the destination is Episode 5, which is titled Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs, streaming next Wednesday on Disney+. The title positions it as a sequel to Weapon X, Lies, and Video Tape, the 1995 installment of the original animated series that first revealed how many of Logan’s memories were fabricated. 
The timing makes sense for another reason. Magneto tore the adamantium out of Wolverine’s body in the Season 1 finale, leaving the mutant fighting with bone claws ever since. Trailers already confirmed the metal returns before Season 2 wraps on August 12, and a return trip to Weapon X is the most obvious road back.
The stinger’s biggest achievement, though, might be reminding fans why the tradition existed in the first place. Marvel Studios started writing checks with its credits scenes back in 2008, and several of the biggest finally come due. The studio’s upcoming slate is primed to pay off at least eight of those Marvel teases.
8 MCU Post-Credits Scenes That Will Soon Pay Off In Future Movies
Spider-Man: Homecoming’s Scorpion Tease
One of the teases that has waited the longest for a payoff is Mac Gargan’s. In the mid-credits scene of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Michael Mando’s criminal corners Adrian Toomes in a prison hallway, flashes his injury and a scorpion tattoo, and presses the Vulture for Spider-Man’s identity. Toomes protects Peter, claiming the web-slinger would already be dead if he knew.
Nine years later, the payoff arrives in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which premieres July 31. Mando returns as a fully armed Scorpion, complete with the mechanized tail he swings at Peter throughout the film’s trailers. Set photos of the actor in the same white prison uniform from Homecoming suggest a breakout kicks off his rampage.
Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Leftover Symbiote
Doctor Strange’s final spell yanked Eddie Brock back to his own universe in No Way Home’s mid-credits scene, but a sliver of the Venom symbiote stayed behind on the bar where he had been drinking. Venom: The Last Dance later complicated the tease by making many changes to the scene.
Even so, Brand New Day remains the thread’s most natural home. Fans have theorized the black goo could hand Peter his famous symbiote suit or bond with Scorpion, a pairing that actually happened in the comics. Humorously, Zendaya’s use of all-black press outfits has also fueled the chatter. None of it is confirmed, though, and the payoff could amount to another quick credits tease probably paid off in Secret Wars.
Doctor Strange 2’s Incursion Warning
Charlize Theron’s Clea stops Stephen Strange on a New York street in the post-credits scene of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and says, "You caused an Incursion, and we’re gonna fix it," before the two descend into the Dark Dimension.
That sentence highlights a concept which is the driving force of the entire Multiverse Saga: Incursions. Incursions are collisions between two universes, and they're a big part of the comic storyline Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are adapting. Theron has no confirmed role in either film, which leaves Secret Wars, due in December 2027, as the likeliest place for Marvel to honor Clea’s promise once the Incursion crisis boils over.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s Secret Prince
Shuri travels to Haiti in the mid-credits scene of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, where Nakia introduces her to a boy named Toussaint. The child then shares his Wakandan name, Prince T’Challa, son of King T’Challa, revealing that the late king left behind an heir the world never knew about.
Marvel has two clear paths for paying this one off. The prince could surface in Avengers: Secret Wars alongside the wider Wakandan contingent, or wait for the third Black Panther film, which Ryan Coogler continues to develop. Coogler said late last year that work on the movie is well underway, and Denzel Washington previously revealed the director wrote a part specifically for him. Whenever the story returns to Wakanda, the young prince’s claim to the mantle hangs over all of it.
The Marvels’ X-Men Reveal
Monica Rambeau closes a rift between universes at the end of The Marvels, and the film’s post-credits scene shows the cost. She wakes in an unfamiliar med bay beside a variant of her late mother, Maria, who now operates as the hero Binary, while a comic-accurate Beast, voiced by Kelsey Grammer, mentions Charles Xavier by name.
This payoff is locked in. Grammer returns as Beast in Avengers: Doomsday, arriving December 18, alongside fellow X-Men veterans Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, and Rebecca Romijn. Monica’s stranding gave the MCU its first concrete bridge to a mutant-populated universe, and Doomsday will explore this universe as the trailers have shown.
Captain America: Brave New World’s Grim Warning
Sam Wilson visits Samuel Sterns on the Raft in the credits scene of Captain America: Brave New World. The Leader, smug even behind bars, tells the new Captain America that the heroes of this world are not alone in the Multiverse, warning that Sam will one day have to protect his planet "from the others."
The line is the MCU’s most direct signpost toward Doomsday’s multiversal conflict. It also gives Sam his motivation, and Anthony Mackie’s Captain America now heads into the December film as part of a stacked hero roster standing against Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom.
Thunderbolts’ Mystery Ship
Fourteen months after forming, the rebranded New Avengers spend the Thunderbolts post-credits scene monitoring a strange craft entering Earth’s atmosphere, an extradimensional ship bearing a familiar 4. Joe and Anthony Russo filmed the moment themselves during production on Avengers: Doomsday.
The scene all but writes Doomsday’s opening pages. The Fantastic Four crossing into the main universe sets the December film in motion, and the mystery of why the First Family abandons its home reality is one the movie needs to answer.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps' Doom Reveal
The mid-credits scene of The Fantastic Four: First Steps jumps four years ahead, with Sue Storm stepping out of the room while reading to her son. She returns to find a cloaked figure kneeling before Franklin, silver mask in hand, and the moment cuts to a title card promising the team’s return in Avengers: Doomsday.
Doom’s silent interest in Franklin gives the crossover its most personal stakes. The film established that the boy holds the Power Cosmic, the same energy that made Galactus hunt for him, and the villain’s house call implies he wants it too. Whatever Doom’s plan turns out to be, it starts in a living room on Earth-828.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
