‘Thunderbolts*' Post-Credits Scenes Explained: Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now

Yahoo

02-05-2025

Marvel Studios has conditioned audiences to stay through the end credits and 'Thunderbolts*' is no different.
The latest MCU entry unites a ragtag band of misfits, led by Black Widow Yelena (Florence Pugh) and including Bucky (Sebastian Stan), the Red Guardian (David Harbour), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) as they face a bigger, badder threat that will take all of them, working together, to take it down. 'Thunderbolts*' is one of the better Marvel movies of the past few years, full of inventiveness and a shocking frankness when it comes to discussions of mental health and depression, and the story doesn't end when the credits start. But that is a pretty good place to begin.
Let's talk about the movie's post-credits scenes.Yes, there are! Two in fact – one mid-credits scene and one post-credits scene.
The team, which had been going by the Thunderbolts (a nod to Yelena's youth soccer team), is given a new moniker by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). That moniker? The New Avengers.
Yeah.
There is.
In the mid-credits scene, we are in a traditional United States grocery store. A woman is in the cereal aisle, trying to figure out what to get for breakfast. She is approached by a man with a giant mustache. It's Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian (Harbour) who suggests she get a box of Wheaties, because the Thunderbolts aka the New Avengers are on there. They are heroes!
Yes, earlier in the movie, Red Guardian says that if the team really works, then one day they might be on a box of Wheaties. His prophecy has been fulfilled.
Well, in the background, faintly playing in the supermarket, is Starship's 1987 single 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now,' which was the theme song to the movie 'Mannequin' (Google it) and appeared on the band's album 'No Protection.' After the Red Guardian has his little moment, the song overwhelms the scene and plays during the next little phase of credits. It's nice to have a bop when you're sitting through credits, waiting for the next scene.
Oh there is one. And it's a whopper.
The sequence is set 14 months after the events of 'Thunderbolts'/'The New Avengers.' They are fully a team now, with some nifty black outfits with a new take on the classic 'A' logo. But there are some issues – as they talk about in the scene, Sam Wilson aka the new Captain America (Anthony Mackie) is suing the New Avengers and issued copyright protections on the name the Avengers. (Red Guardian's solution? They become the AvengerZ. Makes sense.) The New Avengers are headquartered in the former Stark Tower/Avengers Tower from 2012's 'The Avengers' and 2015's 'Avengers: Age of Ultron.' Bob aka Sentry (Lewis Pullman) hasn't been using his powers because he said that if he does, he taps into the stuff that made Void, a supervillain that threatened the city. Fun bonus detail: Bob is reading Rick Rubin's 'The Creative Act: A Way of Being.' Yelena says that there is something happen in space. This is news to us and maybe points to the inciting incident of next year's 'Avengers: Doomsday?' Whatever it is, it's not good.
They get alerted that there is something entering our atmosphere, not from space but from another dimension. They ask for a satellite image of the object. And they get it.
Well, if you've seen the trailer for 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' the MCU movie that opens in just a couple of months, you'll recognize it right away. If you don't, the ship rotates and you see a giant '4' on the site. You also hear the familiar strains of Michael Giacchino's 'Fantastic Four' theme, which has been teased since last year's San Diego Comic-Con.
It kind of does. We haven't seen the new movie but it seems to suggest that, yes, Galactus destroys the Fantastic Four's universe and they are the sole refugees, coming to the mainline MCU dimension. A super strange choice!
It is weird. Maybe Marvel just thinks this is a foregone conclusion and they really, really are ready for the Fantastic Four to meet the New Avengers? It's sort of unclear.
Yeah.
There's one more thing.
After it cuts to black, we get a message like the old James Bond movies: 'The New Avengers and Bob will return.'
Actually yes! 'Avengers: Doomsday,' the 'Avengers' movie that will debut next May, has confirmed Pugh, Harbour, Stan, Russell, Pullman and John-Kamen will all be back. Huzzah!
'Thunderbolts*' is in theaters now.
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