After Avengers: Endgame ended, many fans were hoping for something, anything after the credits to hint at phase 4 and beyond. Unfortunately, Endgame skipped out on Marvel’s now-trademark button sequence in favor of closure. Even the re-release’s added post-credits scene just showed a longer version of a Spider-Man: Far From Home scene that we’d already seen in trailers. Luckily though, the web-slingers latest outing brought back the post-credit scenes in a big way. There was not only one, but two pretty meaningful scenes tagged on to the end of Far From Home. Let’s take a look at what they could mean for the future of the MCU. (Before you do, though, check out Def Pen’s review of Far From Home here.)
Mid-Credits
First up, the mid-credits scene picks up exactly where the film just left off. Peter drops MJ off at sea level after swinging her around the city as a breaking news report plays on a large screen across the street. Mysterio’s face appears on screen as he blames Spider-Man for the destruction in London before using a manipulated clip of Peter’s voice as fake evidence.
Then, in one of the best surprises of the entire movie, J. Jonah Jameson shows up on the screen. And in an even better surprise, Jameson’s played by none other than J.K. Simmons (who portrayed the definitive version of the character in Sam Raimi’s trilogy). The Daily Bugle mouthpiece spouts off in his usual manner about how Spider-Man’s a menace to the city. He also namedrops Mysterio as the “greatest hero of all time,” clearly having bought into the Man of Mystery’s bullshit.
Speaking of, Mysterio has another bomb to drop on Peter’s life. He ends the video by revealing Peter’s secret identity to the world.
So, what does it mean? Well, for the first time in the MCU Spider-Man’s time on screen, he’s now seen as a bad guy by those who don’t know him personally. This could be setting up a multitude of different stories as Peter hasn’t exactly been the press’ favorite person throughout much of his time in the comics. However, I think the main conflict this setting up is one between Spider-Man and Norman Osborn.
Osborn has been rumored to be joining the MCU for some time now. And, for those unfamiliar, he’s often been Mayor of New York in the comics. So, I think when the wall-crawler returns to the screen, we’ll see Osborn starting a political campaign; with the promise of exterminating Spider-Man.
After-Credits
Finally, after the entirety of the credits have rolled, we get one more peak into MCU life post-snap. And, it’s an interesting one, to say the least. We catch up with Nick Fury and Maria Hill as they drive to their next mission before suddenly, they’re revealed to be two Skulls in disguise as the former S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents. They’re not just any Skulls though, because it’s none other that Talos and his wife Soren, we were introduced to earlier this year in Captain Marvel.
The two argue briefly about whether or not they need to tell “him.” Ultimately, Soren convinces Talos to make the call and we next see Nick Fury on a beach. Or, so it would seem. As Talos summarizes the events of the film for Fury, the one-eyed spy gets up as the beach disappears. He’s really on a Skull ship out in space and, as he realizes his vacation’s over, he starts looking for his shoes. As he does, he gruffly orders everyone to get back to work.
This is probably my personal favorite post-credits scene since the Civil War lead-in. First of all, I’m a big fan of Ben Mendelsohn, the actor who plays Talos. So, the more Ben the better. Much more importantly though, this scene finds a healthy balance between pure comedy and important hints at the future of the MCU. Since Iron Man 3, they’ve often included a purely comedic scene that adds nothing to the overall narrative. Not that we should expect every post-credits scene to reveal a crazy game-changing detail. But, the ones that were jokes, especially the ones that were BAD jokes, always felt like a slap in the face.
The Talos/Soren scene was funny but also gave us hints at what to expect moving forward. Obviously, everyone’s mind probably went straight to Secret Wars, a famous comic storyline where the Skrulls invade Earth by secretly replacing citizens and heroes. I think I can finally say, we’re not getting any Secret Wars, well at least not how we expect. The MCU Skulls are obviously much different from their comic book counterpart and this scene felt like Marvel Studios saying “Enough already.” But, it does reveal an interesting world where humans and Skulls work alongside each other.
That’s really all we got from the second scene. But, the way Fury seemed to be commanding the Skull ships, as well as Talos and Soren’s willingness to help Fury tells me that there’s probably a lot that’s happened since we last saw them flying off into space at the end of Captain Marvel. Hopefully, we’ll learn more in Captain Marvel 2.
