At the Saturn Awards last night, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige confirmed that the planned "Infinity Saga" box set will include a multitude of deleted and alternate scenes never seen before.
He actually ended up showing one of those off and, as you can see below, it's pretty mind-blowing! Once upon a time, Feige clearly considered having
Iron Man exist in the same world as
Spider-Man and the
X-Men and envisioned some sort of crossover between the characters one day.
In the scene, Fury talks about "radioactive bug bites" and "mutants" before telling Tony Stark about "The Avengers Initiative." Had this version made the final cut, who knows what might have happened! Ironically, Feige had access to Spider-Man over the past few years thanks to a short-lived deal with Sony Pictures, while the rights to the
X-Men have also returned home.
Now, the mind boggles at how many other scenes like this will be included in that box set...
Hit the "View List" button below to check out 10 of the best
and worst Marvel Cinematic Universe post-credits scenes!
THE BEST
10. Thor's Hammer (Iron Man 2, 2010)
Another early post-credits scene, we all knew that Thor was coming when Iron Man 2 was released, but this stinger provided our first look at Mjolnir after it had crash landed on Earth.
While it left us with a lot of questions, it was impossible not to feel psyched after witnessing this tease for the God of Thunder's arrival and knowing it would be a game-changer for the MCU as we moved from the grounded adventures of Iron Man to the alien halls of Asgard.
9. "Adam" (Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, 2017)
James Gunn's critically acclaimed
Guardians of the Galaxy sequel features more post-credits scenes than any other Marvel movie, but this was an undeniable highlight. For years, speculation had been running rampant about the possibility of Adam Warlock coming to the MCU, and the filmmaker finally laid the groundwork for that with this intriguing sequence.
Non-fans would have no doubt been left baffled by the mention of "Adam," but we all knew what this meant and seeing it pay off in
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 promises to be a lot of fun.
8. Captain Marvel Tease (Avengers: Infinity War, 2018)
Marvel Studios did a great job of keeping
Avengers: Infinity War's biggest surprises under wraps and that meant we had no idea what to expect from the massive superhero ensemble's post-credits scene.
Kicking off with Nick Fury and Maria Hill's investigation of Thanos' attack on Wakanda, we were left reeling when they both turned to dust and the mysterious device the former dropped displayed a logo that was instantly familiar to fans of the comic books. Captain Marvel had finally arrived (sort of), and this definitely increased excitement for her solo adventure.
7. Groot Dances (Guardians Of The Galaxy, 2014)
This may have just been a "fun" post-credits scene, but Marvel Studios never could have realised what sort of impact it would have. This brief - and ridiculously cute - sequence featuring Baby Groot dancing away led to huge demand for merchandise which Disney hadn't thought to produce and they were left scrambling to catch up.
It also served as an introduction to the baby version of Groot we'd all end up falling in love with (even more than we already had done) a few years later with
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
6. Scarlet Witch And Quicksilver (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2014)
In many ways, the MCU was still in its infancy back in 2014 and so the introduction of characters like Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch was a considerably bigger deal than it is now.
Serving as a tease of what was to come in
Avengers: Age of Ultron, we got a glimpse of "The Twins" in action, and while we weren't entirely sure whether they would be heroes or villains (or even mutants) at this point in time, this sneak peek was an absolute treat and gets bonus points for tying into the events of the movie it was attached to by mentioning HYDRA's apparent downfall.
5. Stan Lee Reports To The Watchers (Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, 2017)
How could you not love this?
The late, great Stan "The Man" Lee made a number of memorable cameos in the MCU but the apparent revelation that he had been sent to Earth by The Watchers to keep an eye on things was a game-changer, and something fans had been theorising for years.
Just seeing The Watchers in live-action was amazing, and now that the rights to the Fantastic Four have returned home, here's hoping we'll finally get to see Uatu appear during key moments.
4. The Avengers Initiative (Iron Man, 2008)
This was where it all began. While details had leaked online beforehand, social media was in its infancy back in 2008 so it's not like it was all over Twitter and Instagram! As a result, the handful of fans who decided to wait until the very end of the credits were treated to witnessing the introduction of Samuel L. Jackson and getting to hear about The Avengers Initiative for the first time.
It was clear that Marvel Studios was using
The Ultimates for inspiration here, and that was exciting for a lot of reasons. However, the very ideas of The Avengers assembling on the big screen was hard to believe and most of us didn't think it would ever come to much.
3. Thanos Arrives (The Avengers, 2012)
By now, we've seen an awful lot of Thanos, so it's fair to say that the novelty has somewhat worn off, right? Well, while fans waited patiently for a post-credits scene at the end of
The Avengers, they were treated to the big screen debut of the Mad Titan as we learned that he had been the one pulling Loki's strings from the start.
Brought to life with practical effects rather than CGI, he didn't look great, but was more than enough to have fans losing their minds. It's crazy to think how long it took for this to pay off, but the wait was worth it and this proved that Marvel Studios had big plans.
2. The Avengers (Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011)
I bet you forgot about this one, right?
Captain America: The First Avenger arrived in theaters in July and the first trailer for
The Avengers didn't come our way until October. However, providing you waited until the very end of this movie, you would have been treated to a teaser eaturing very early footage that left everyone talking.
We got to see Loki in custody, new costumes, and a conversation between Iron Man and Thor - something it was hard to imagine ever happening at the time. Proving that
The Avengers movie was really happening, the excitement this created at the time is probably hard to imagine for younger fans used to releases as large in scale as
Avengers: Endgame!
J. Jonah Jameson Returns (Spider-Man: Far From Home, 2019)
Alas, Spider-Man's time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has seemingly reached its end, but he certainly went out in style. In this mid-credits scene, the wall-crawler's attention was grabbed by a news report in the Big Apple which not only featured the shock return of J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, but also the hero's secret identity revealed to the entire world!
Both of those moments were genuinely jaw-dropping and nicely set the stage for this version of Spidey to be branded a "menace" after he was framed for the murder of Mysterio. This has to be the most exciting tease ever and it's just a shame we won't get to see Kevin Feige pick up on it...still, perhaps Venom will go hunting for Spider-Man if he's now a "Lethal Protector."
THE WORST
10. Patience (Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017)
On the one hand, I really enjoyed this post-credits scene. It's a lot of fun and genuinely very funny, as Marvel Studios uses a recurring joke from S
pider-Man: Homecoming to poke fun at the fans who diligently stick around for these extra scenes at the end of the credits.
Well, therein lies the problem, as this ultimately felt like a very underwhelming way to wrap up the first solo outing for the wall-crawler in the MCU. I'm sure something a little more exciting could have been used, especially as Spidey was set to return in
Infinity War.
9. Bruce Banner Falls Asleep (Iron Man 3, 2013)
The first movie to follow
The Avengers was controversial for a number of reasons. After realising that humour was a key component in the success of these movies,
Iron Man 3 really upped the laughs and even ended up making The Mandarin something of a punchline, much to the chagrin of comic book fans.
So, while Bruce Banner dozing off as he listens to Tony Stark's story may have been pretty amusing and a decent enough cameo, this wasn't a strong scene and I'm willing to bet you forgot all about it!
8. Karl Mordo Breaks Bad (Doctor Strange, 2016)
At the end of
Doctor Strange, a disgusted Karl Mordo wipes his hands with his friend upon realising that The Ancient One betrayed them and Strange has used the Time Stone to manipulate events to his liking. That left the character in an interesting place, but by the time the post-credits scene arrived, he had become an unhinged villain who suddenly wanted to wipe out all sorcerers.
While there was nothing wrong with setting the stage for Mordo to embrace his evil persona from the comic books, this felt too rushed and a tad forced, hence why it earns a place here.
7. Wakanda Opens Its Borders (Black Panther, 2018)
On the one hand, there was nothing wrong with this scene and it was obviously cool to see T'Challa open Wakanda's borders to the rest of the world. The problem here, however, was that this was originally intended to be the movie's final scene and it being moved essentially made it a repeat of Black Panther's conversation with Shuri where Erik Killmonger was brought up.
Throw in the fact that we saw this in the movie's trailers, and it didn't exactly have a huge impact.
6. Loki Returns (Thor, 2011)
At the time, the reveal that Loki was alive and well and seemingly in control of Dr. Erik Selvig was pretty cool, even if it is somewhat tame by today's standards. However, proving that Marvel Studios was still finding its feet, by the time
The Avengers rolled around, this proved to be mostly irrelevant aside from getting Selvig to the right place at the start of the epic superhero ensemble.
We also already knew that Loki would return to plague Thor and Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the movie, so his resurrection was not exactly a shocker. I guess the plus side is that this did at least offer a first look at what was to come in Joss Whedon's
The Avengers!
5. Mac Gargan Hatches A Plan (Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017)
As post-credits scenes go, this felt more like a Sony Pictures decision than a Marvel Studios one. While fans remain optimistic that the Sinister Six are coming to the MCU, Mac Gargan approaching Adrian Toomes feels too on the nose, and wasn't even followed up on in
Spider-Man: Far From Home.
In the comics, Gargan has a pretty cool origin story, but rushing it like this does the character a disservice and if I didn't know any better, I would say this was a deleted scene from
The Amazing Spider-Man 2!
4. "Secret Invasion" (Spider-Man: Far From Home, 2019)
I'm well aware that many fans loved this, but, for me, it was just pointless and confusing. Making Nick Fury a Skrull for the entirety of the movie just so he could have a "vacation" makes his interactions with Spider-Man worthless; had this been setting the stage for
Secret Invasion, then that obviously would have been a completely different matter!
As it stands, though, everything that happened between Spidey and Fury didn't really count and if this was Marvel's way of revealing that
Captain Marvel 2 will feature Fury in space, there are a million better ways that could be achieved. I didn't like this at all, but I appreciate this might be a "best" for some fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
3. "I'll Do It Myself" (Avengers: Age Of Ultron, 2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron gets a bad rap, but I'm a big fan of Joss Whedon's sequel. However, there's no getting around how underwhelming this particular post-credits scene was.
It felt like a rehash of what we saw at the end of
The Avengers, and Thanos declaring, "Fine, I'll do it myself!" would have had a lot more impact had we had seen the Mad Titan in more than just
Guardians of the Galaxy. It says a lot that the Russo Brothers have since retconned this scene and attempted to explain it away on a number of occasions!
2. Captain Marvel's Arrival On Earth (Captain Marvel, 2019)
Hey, I'm surprised to see this scene here too, but couldn't think of a better place for it. Following the release of
Captain Marvel (and since that tease at the end of
Avengers: Infinity War), we had all been speculating about how Carol Danvers would return to Earth and rumours ran rampant that a clash with Earth's Mightiest Heroes might be on the cards.
Instead, she just randomly appeared in the Avengers Compound and
Avengers: Endgame failed to expand on this or show us how the team responded to her arrival on Earth. As a result, it's hard to get around the fact that this was ultimately a major let-down.
1. The Giant Ant (Ant-Man And The Wasp, 2018)
Perhaps I'm being too harsh, but what the heck was this?
After a game-changing mid-credits scene featuring the deaths of The Wasp, Janet Van Dyne, and Hank Pym, I fully understand why Marvel Studios wanted to add some levity to the proceedings, but a
Captain Marvel tease totally unrelated to this adventure would have been better than a silly sequence showing that giant ant playing the drums.
When you also take into account the fact this was included in the trailers, it just makes it worse!