Rank-It: Marvel End-Credit Scenes

One of the most iconic movie franchises made a breakthrough with their end-credit scenes as a way to reel audiences in and foreshadow the next projects in the saga.

Here’s a ranking of all 53 from the Marvel Cinematic Movie movies:

53. Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (#2)

The second end credits scene in Multiverse of Madness is hands down the most pointless Marvel has ever done. The pizza man Stephen put a spell on finally stopped punching himself in the face, and it wasn’t even funny.

52. Guardians of the Galaxy (#2)

This was also a pretty useless scene, with the only Easter egg being the addition of Howard the Duck from the comics.

51. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (#2)

This is basically Sylvester Stallone’s character trying to get his old team back together, and it will likely have no follow-up in Guardians Vol 3.

50. Captain Marvel (#2)

Goose eats the Tesseract. It was cute.

49. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (#1)

After Yondu died, Kraglin gained possession of the Yaka Arrow and accidentally stabbed Drax with it in this short scene. Kind of funny, kind of a waste.

48. Doctor Strange (#2)

Karl Mordo takes away Jonathan Pangborn’s magic. There wasn’t a lot to take away from this end-credit scene, and at this point, the sorcerers don’t play a big part in the MCU, anyway.

47. Spider-Man Homecoming (#1)

Scorpion makes friends with Vulture in the slammer and tells him his crew wants Spider-Man’s identity (which he knew). Vulture says he can’t help and leaves to see his family.

Nothing really came of this as neither character appeared again in an MCU Spider-Man film.

46. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (#4)

This is another cute Peter Quill and Groot scene, but it wasn’t really necessary.

45. Thor: The Dark World (#2)

A portal opens on Jane Foster’s balcony, and she runs out to see it’s Thor. They passionately embrace. Couple goals, but not too important.

44. Thor Ragnarok (#2)

The Grandmaster tries to convince the Sakkarians not to kill him after the revolution. The Grandmaster/Jeff Goldblum supremacy, obviously, but not enough to move it up the list.

43. Eternals (#2)

We love a good foreshadowing end credits scene, and this one seems to hint at the upcoming “Blade” show, with Dane Whitman finding an ancient sword (likely of the magical variety).

However, there are more exciting foreshadowing moments to come.

42. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (#1)

Clea and Doctor Strange go to another dimension to solve another problem, which seems like Strange’s only job in the MCU at this point.

41. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (#2)

Xialing takes her father’s spot as the leader of the Ten Rings, I guess we’ll have to wait and see if this is explored more in the future.

40. Thor: Love and Thunder (#2)

Jane enters Valhalla and is greeted by Heimdall. Nice closure for two iconic characters in the Thor saga.

39. Spider-Man: No Way Home (#1)

Yay, Venom is in the MCU! Well, are we ever really going to follow up on this? No new Venom project has been announced and so far it seems like he’s not slated for anything else. We’ll see.

38. Thor Love and Thunder (#1)

Zeus sends out his son, Hercules, to kill Thor.

If I had a nickel for every time a man with “Russell” in his name played a disgraced father in the MCU, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t that many but it is weird that it happened twice.

37. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (#5)

The Watchers meet with an informant (Stan Lee) who tells them about his universal travels. We love Stan Lee, and it was cool to see the MCU debut of The Watchers, I guess.

36. The Incredible Hulk

Wait a minute. Isn’t this the property of Universal?

Anyways, Tony Stark meets up with Thaddeus Ross and tells him (you guessed it!) that a team is being put together. How many times is Marvel going to redo this concept with different characters?

35. Ant-Man and the Wasp (#2)

A giant ant plays Scott Lang’s drum set that he used during his house arrest. It’s a pretty funny scene, and we have to fill up these 30s spots somehow.

34. Guardians of the Galaxy (#1)

Groot dances to “I Want You Back” and stops once Drax looks at him. The cuteness factor is the only reason why this is up here.

33. Thor: The Dark World (#1)

Uh oh, here come the infinity stones! Sif and Volstagg put the Aether (reality stone) into the hands of the Collector, unaware that he is trying to track all of the infinity stones down. We all know how that works out for him (not good).

32. Iron Man 3

Tony Stark recaps the movie to Bruce Banner as a form of therapy, but Banner has been asleep the entire time. Good ending for a good movie and shadows the scientist friendship in “Age of Ultron.”

31. Spider-Man: Far From Home (#2)

This scene foreshadows “Secret Invasion,” and shows that the Skrulls Talos and Soren have been posing as Nick Fury and Maria Hill for the whole movie. Talos contacts Fury (who is currently commanding a Skrull ship), and it is pretty shocking to find out it is not the real Fury and Hill helping Peter Parker in the film.

30. Eternals (#1)

‘Ello, I’m Harry Styles.

29. Spider-Man: Homecoming (#2)

This might be the best “funny” end-credit scene Marvel has done. Steve Rogers appears on screen like he did in the detention video in the movie, and announces the audience waited through the whole credit sequence for nothing.

It was hilarious, and fun to see Marvel make fun of us for how whipped we are over waiting for the end credits scenes.

28. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (#1)

Bruce Banner and Captain Marvel meet with Wong, Shang-Chi and Katy to discuss their battle with the Ten Rings, and then the trio does karaoke.

Since Bruce and Carol are two of the last Avengers, it was important to see how Marvel is going to weave the new origin stories into the lives of those we’ve followed for years.

27. Black Panther (#2)

Bucky has risen! He’s out of the cryo chamber in Wakanda, seemingly cured of the hold Hydra had on his mind. It’s great, he deserves a break for once (until he's brought into a multi-world war against Thanos five seconds later).

26. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (#3)

Ayesha reveals that she’s creating the Adam, which has the power to destroy the Guardians.

This foreshadows “Guardians Vol. 3.”

25. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (#1)

Kang, Kang, and more Kang. There are obviously hundreds of versions of the Conqueror, and this scene foreshadows the future of the Avengers– who will have to give everything to take him down.

24. Spider-Man: No Way Home (#2)

Betty Brant reports on the end of high school, and Peter Parker isn’t in any of the pictures. This means that Doctor Strange’s spell worked, and while none of his friends will remember him, Parker has to start fresh in a post-Stark world.

23. Doctor Strange (#1)

In a scene taken from “Thor: Ragnarok,” Thor and Strange discuss Loki coming back to Earth with Thor in search of their father, Odin. Strange agrees to help, as long as they return right after.

Return they will, since their long lost sister Hela is about to eviscerate Asgard.

22. Iron Man 2

Phil Coulson reports to Fury that a hammer has crashed in New Mexico. This scene foreshadows Thor, the origin story of everyone’s favorite hunk of a Norse god.

21. Ant-Man (#1)

Hope obviously deserved a suit more than Scott in this movie (let’s be real, people) so it was exciting to see her get the Wasp suit in this end-credits scene.

20. Thor

Nick Fury brings Erik Selvig to the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters to investigate the Tesseract, but Fury doesn’t know that Loki is controlling Selvig’s mind. This foreshadows “The Avengers,” and the ever-long Tesseract saga in the MCU.

19. Captain Marvel (#1)

We’re in the endgame now. Captain Marvel pops into a discussion between Steve, Natasha, Rhodey and Bruce and demands to know where Nick Fury is, foreshadowing “Avengers: Endgame,” the climactic end of the Infinity Saga.

18. Ant-Man (#2)

In a cut scene from “Civil War,” Steve and Sam Wilson sit with a chained-up Bucky, and Sam says that he knows a guy they can go to for help.

Realistically, who asks Scott Lang for help, though?

17. Captain America: Civil War (#1)

Steve watches Bucky go into the Wakandan cryo chamber to begin his healing journey, and he thanks T’Challa for offering Bucky sanctuary here. This scene is really important because it not only foreshadows “Black Panther,” but saves Bucky from Hydra’s grasp.

16. The Avengers (#1)

“The Avengers” introduces the Big Man of Marvel, Thanos, in this scene, though he’s had a huge glow-up throughout the series. This sets the stage for the biggest villain in the Avengers saga.

15. Captain America Civil War (#2)

One of the most hopeful end credits scenes, this one shows a beaten-up Peter Parker in his room after returning from the “Civil War” fight in Germany. His web-shooters light up and project the Spider-Man symbol on his ceiling, signaling that our MCU Spider-Man has arrived.

14. Black Panther (#1)

After fighting for it the entire movie, T’Challa and the Dora Milaje travel to the UN and announce that Wakanda will open its borders to the world. This is huge because Wakandan vibranium becomes a plot point in later movies, especially “Wakanda Forever.”

13. Ant-Man and the Wasp (#1)

*Snap* After watching the full “Ant-Man” movie and getting attached to the characters, Hope, Janet, and Hank are turned to dust by Thanos’s snap. Now this would be bad as is, but they disintegrated while Scott was in the Quantum Realm harvesting particles.

As far as we knew, he would be stuck in there forever (but bless that “Endgame” rat!)

12. Captain America: The First Avenger

Fury meets with Steve Rogers, who is out of the woods and the ice, and tells him that he plans on putting a team together.

11. Iron Man

Fury literally commits a felony and tells Tony Stark about… that’s right! The Avengers Initiative!

However, this is one of the most crucial scenes in the MCU, especially since the whole thing started with Iron Man both as a person and as a concept in the universe.

10. Avengers: Infinity War (#1)

Right before Fury and Maria Hill are about to snap, he sends a distress signal from a 90s-esque pager, which foreshadows “Captain Marvel.”

A really cool scene that enhances one movie and shadows the next.

9. Black Widow

Grab the tissues because this end-credits scene is an emotional one. Yelena visits the grave of Natasha after she sacrificed herself for Clint Barton in “Endgame.” The director of the CIA, Val de Fontaine, approaches her and gives her an opportunity to take Clint out.

As we now know, this foreshadowed the “Hawkeye” Disney+ series but was an all-around beautiful performance from Florence Pugh.

8. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (#2)

Though “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” wasn’t the best Marvel production, the end credit scene made up for the two hours of mental torture. While time traveling, Loki and Mobius watch a variant of Kang explain time in an old Western play, and the company announces that Kang will return in “Loki” season two.

Chills all around.

7. The Avengers (#2)

She’s an icon, she’s a legend and she is the moment. This is THE shawarma scene that everyone wanted to see after Tony mentioned it post-Battle of New York. These heroes just fought an entire alien army and a Norse god, they all deserve a chill dinner date.

6. Thor Ragnarok (#1)

Foreshadowing the first few minutes of “Avengers: Infinity War,” Loki approaches Thor and asks him about going to Earth while a giant ship approaches theirs.

Should’ve gone for the head? More like should’ve listened to your brother, Thor.

5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (#1)

The return of Loki’s scepter, the introduction of Baron Strucker, and the teasing of the dangerous and unstable Maximoff twins make this end-credits scene shoot up to the top 5. This was one of the grittiest times in the MCU, and it was phenomenal to see the dark side of the comics portrayed on screen with Wanda and Pietro locked in cells and used as weapons.

4. Avengers: Age of Ultron

No one else wanted to rank “Avengers: Age of Ultron” higher on these sorts of lists? Fine. I’ll do it myself.

After being fed up, Thanos dons the Infinity Gauntlet for the first time and vows to defeat the Avengers with the Infinity Stones.

3. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

“Wakanda Forever” as a whole was a beautiful tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman, but his legacy continues on in this end credits scene. Shuri meets T’Challa and Nakia’s young son, whom she named after T’Challa.

The Black Panther mantle will likely one day pass on to young T’Challa, and the scene was a simple and brilliant way to close this chapter.

2. Spider-Man: Far From Home (#1)

It’s the picture that haunted Twitter for weeks– Peter Parker’s class photo that Quentin Beck projected through Times Square as he revealed Spider-Man’s true identity. This has never been done in any “Spider-Man” film and left the audience literally gasping for air.

It was the perfect lead-in to “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” as we needed to know how Peter would handle this mess.

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (#2)

People don’t realize how big of a problem The Winter Soldier becomes in the MCU until they take into account that he and Baron Zemo physically destroyed the Avengers without even laying a hand on them.

After bringing a banged-up Steve back to shore, “The Winter Soldier” ends with Bucky disappearing, but in the post-credit scene, he’s at the same place where the movie started trying to remember things from his past.

It’s painful to see a character who has gone through so much over eighty years struggle to even remember his own name, but seeing his own memorial at the Smithsonian sparked some recognition of the man who was Sergeant James Barnes.

Adrianna Gallucci is a first-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, please email amg7989@psu.edu.

Kaitlyn Murphy is a first-year student majoring in digital and print journalism. To contact her, please email kvm6255@psu.edu.