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Post-Credit Cliffhanger Analysis
🕑 Added 2023-01-26 21:16:40 +0000 UTCHey everyone, hope you're ready for a new year of lots of reading orders. I just added the A.X.E.: Judgement Day reading order today, and I should have another massive 200-300 issue update to the Modern Age Begins reading order in the coming weeks. Also remember to check out our new Discord, lots of fun conversation going on over there.
Today I wanted to continue in my series of random posts with an analysis I've done of MCU post-credit scenes. I've seen a lot of complaints from the fandom that Phase 4 is introducing too many cliffhanger scenes that aren't being followed up quickly enough. I did some calculations to determine what the average length of follow up time was for scenes in each of Phases 1-3, and some predictions for Phase 4. I think the results might surprise you. If you want more random posts like this let me know!
Phase 1
Iron Man Scene: Stark meets Nick Fury
Follow Up: Iron Man 2, 2 years later
Incredible Hulk Scene: Stark visits General Ross
Follow Up: The Consultant, 3 years, 3 months later
Iron Man 2 Scene: Thor's hammer arrives
Follow Up: Thor, 1 year later
Thor Scene: Fury shows Selvig the Tesseract.
Follow Up: The Avengers, 1 year later
The Avengers Scene: Introduction of Thanos
Follow Up: Guardians of the Galaxy, 2 years, 3 months later
Average time to follow up: 1 year, 11 months
Phase 2
Thor: The Dark World Scene 1: Agardians deliver the Aether to the Collector
Follow Up: Guardians of the Galaxy, 9 months
Thor: The Dark World Scene 2: Thor returns to Earth to be with Jane
Follow Up: Avengers: Age of Ultron, 1 year, 6 months
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Scene 1: Hydra's experiments unlock powers in the Maximoff twins
Follow Up: Avengers: Age of Ultron, 1 year
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Scene 2: Bucky visits his memorial and seems to have some memories back
Follow Up: Captain America: Civil War, 2 years
Guardians of the Galaxy Scene 1: Baby Groot
Follow Up: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, 2 years, 9 months
Guardians of the Galaxy Scene 2: Howard the Duck escapes from the Collector
Follow Up: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, 2 years, 9 months
Avengers: Age of Ultron Scene: Thanos puts on the Infinity Guantlet
Follow Up: Avengers: Infinity War, 3 years
Ant-Man Scene: Hope gets the Wasp suit
Follow Up: Ant-Man and the Wasp, 3 years
Average time to follow up: 2 years, 1 month
Phase 3
Captain America: Civil War Scene 1: Introduction of Wakanda
Follow Up: Black Panther, 1 year, 9 months
Captain America: Civil War Scene 2: Peter returns home with new suit
Follow Up: Spider-Man: Homecoming, 1 year, 2 months
Doctor Strange Scene: Mordo decides to kill magic users
Follow Up: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (barely), 5 years, 6 months
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Scene 1: Kraglin acquires Yondu's fin/weapon
Follow Up: Thor: Love and Thunder, 5 years, 2 months
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Scene 2: Stakar reunites his team
Follow Up: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (presumably), 6 years
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Scene 3: Ayesha creates Adam
Follow Up: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (presumably), 6 years
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Scene 4: Reveal of teen Groot
Follow Up: Avengers: Infinty War, 1 year
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Scene 5: Reveal of the Watchers
Follow Up: What If...?, 4 years, 4 months
Spider-Man: Homecoming Scene: Toomes keeps Spider-Man's identity a secret in prison
Follow Up: Morbius (???), 4 years, 9 months
Thor: Ragnarok Scene: A large ship shadows the remaining Asgardians
Follow Up: Avengers: Infinity War, 6 months
Black Panther Scene 1: T'Challa reveals the truth about Wakanda to the world
Follow Up: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (presumably), 4 years, 9 months
Black Panther Scene 2: Bucky continues his recovery in Wakanda
Follow Up: Avengers: Infinity War, 3 months
Avengers: Infinity War Scene: Fury pages Captain Marvel
Follow Up: Captain Marvel, 10 months
Ant-Man and the Wasp Scene: Scott is trapped in the quantum realm after Hope, Hank, and Janet die
Follow Up: Avengers: Endgame, 10 months
Captain Marvel Scene: Captain Marvel arrives at the Avengers compound
Follow Up: Avengers Endgame, 2 months
Spider-Man: Far From Home Scene 1: Mysterio reveals Spider-Man's identity
Follow Up: Spider-Man: No Way Home, 2 years, 5 months
Spider-Man: Far From Home Scene 2: Talos attempts to contact Fury in space
Follow Up: Secret Invasion (presumably), 3 years
Average time to follow up: 2 years, 10 months
Phase 4
WandaVision Scene: Wanda uses the Darkhold to find her children
Follow Up: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, 1 year, 2 months
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Scene: Sharon rejoins the CIA and plans to trade government secrets
Follow Up: Captain America 4 (presumably), 3-4 years
Black Widow Scene: Yelena is tasked with hunting down Clint
Follow Up: Hawkeye, 4 months
What If...? Scene: Captain Carter returns to her universe and finds the Hydra Stomper armor
Follow Up: What If...? Season 2 (presumably), 2 years
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Scene 1: Wong and the Avengers to discuss the origin of the Ten Rings
Follow Up: Shang-Chi 2 (presumably), 3-4 years
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Scene 2:
Follow Up: Shang-Chi Disney+ spinoff (presumably), 3-4 years
Eternals Scene 1: Eros arrives to help the remaining Eternals
Follow Up: ???
Eternals Scene 2: Dane is confronted by Blade
Follow Up: Blade (presumably), 3 years
Spider-Man: No Way Home Scene: Venom returns to his universe after leaving behind a piece of the symbiote
Follow Up: Spider-Man 4 or Secret Wars (presumably), 2-3 years
Average time to follow up: 2 years, 4 months
So far it seems like if my predictions are correct, the wait for a follow up to some of these post-credit scenes won't be much longer than they have been in previous phases. I think the main difference is instead of the MCU telling one overarching story, they are now telling multiple larger stories in addition to the overall Multiverse/Kang saga.
Comments
Patrick Sylvester
Yeah, I've seen a lot of complaints about Phase 4 and appreciate this type of break down! Personally, my wife and I loved Phase 4 and can't wait to see how they tie all these loose ends together!
Kurt Horton
Yeah, I wouldn't mind a little more content here, even if it's just something simple like this.
