Every Loose End in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Doctor Strange and Clea

A lot happens at the end of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The film closes, first of all, with Strange falling to his knees in pain before a third eye opens on his forehead. During an end-credit scene, however, it seems that Doctor Strange has come to terms with it. The true teaser comes as the mysterious Clea (Charlize Theron) appears and tells Strange that he’s caused a multiversal incursion and they need to go and fix it. Opening a portal to the Dark Dimension, both Strange and Clea step in.

In the comics, Clea is a sorceress from the Dark Dimension and the niece of Dormammu, Strange’s first major foe. The incursion is also directly linked to the aforementioned Secret Wars, meaning this interaction could be a potential tie-in later on, but regardless, will the duo be the focus of a potential third Doctor Strange film?

America Chavez Training at Kamar-Taj

Wong adds yet another superhero to his team as America Chavez decides to stay on the MCU’s prime Earth following the events of Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and begins training with the Masters of the Mystic Arts at Kamar-Taj. Chavez never finds her mothers in the film, a mission which could be pursued in the future (perhaps in the long-teased Young Avengers if it ever happens).

A sub-category of “America Chavez Training at Kamar-Taj” is Spider-Man’s Ned Leeds being able to make magic portals, insinuating he has natural magical abilities. Of course, America Chavez was originally in No Way Home and was the one making portals, so when she was taken out of the story, Ned was a last-minute replacement. So while it would be fun to see Ned also training at Kamar-Taj, he’ll probably just stick to MIT.

Hercules Versus Thor

Despite Thor piercing his chest with a thunderbolt in Thor: Love and Thunder, Zeus is still alive and kicking, or at least alive and barking orders. But he doesn’t attempt to hunt down Thor himself; instead, he sends his son Hercules (played by Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein) in his place, likely setting up a new antagonist for the God of Thunder.

Thor and Hercules have been long-time rivals in the comics, with their relationship ranging everywhere from mortal (or immortal maybe) enemies to teammates in the Avengers, so at this stage of the MCU when the universe appears to be expanding in infinite directions, we’ll just have to wait and see which end of the spectrum Hercules settles on.

Ms. Marvel the Mutant

Though we were first told that Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan was a djinn, and that her power came from within, it turns out she’s even more special than that as her bestie Bruno revealed she’s actually a mutant. Technically he says her genes contain something “like a mutation,” but considering the X-Men animated series theme song played over the top of the scene, it’s pretty clear this is step one on a likely long journey to the MCU fully introducing mutants.

It’s hard to say how this revelation about Kamala’s mutation will eventually lead to the introduction of iconic X-Men like Wolverine and Cyclops—especially because she was originally introduced as an Inhuman in the comics—but at least we know they’re finally on the way to the MCU proper.

Three-Hulk

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law saw the expected addition of, well, She-Hulk to the MCU, but it also threw a curveball by introducing a third Hulk at the very end. At a casual family barbecue, Bruce Banner shows up to introduce Skaar, his long-lost son from the planet Sakaar. There isn’t much to go off since the new character didn’t even have a line of dialogue, but as always there’s plenty of comic book material to speculate on.

Skaar has a particularly tragic backstory that intertwines with the Planet Hulk and eventual World War Hulk comic book arcs, in which Hulk is (sort of) banished from Earth and sent to Sakaar before returning in a rage to destroy it. The MCU has obviously gone in a different direction with Banner, but the inclusion of Skaar opens up some potential to return to these beloved comic book storylines.

The Man-Thing Cinematic Universe

Werewolf by Night is arguably the most unique Marvel Cinematic Universe entry so far, and fans could be forgiven for thinking the black and white horror-esque short wasn’t related to the flashy fighting seen in films featuring Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and so on. It therefore may come as a surprise to learn that Man-Thing, the giant, swampy, tentacle-covered, well, man-thing, has actually appeared in the MCU before, at least partly. Before Hulk took to the gladiator arena in Sakaar, Man-Thing was seemingly a Champion there, and a statue commemorating his success can be seen in Thor: Ragnarok.

As for where he or Werewolf by Night’s title character will show up next in the MCU, no one really knows! Werewolf by Night’s executive producer Brian Gay has confirmed Man-Thing will definitely make a return, but as for when or where, even he says he doesn’t know. The character hasn’t appeared in too many comic book crossovers either, but has featured in the X-Men before, meaning it just as well could be the MCU’s mutant era when we next see him.

Riri’s Deal With Mephisto

After debuting in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) returned as the star of her very own series, Ironheart. And the first season ended with Riri, in a swerve, accepting Mephisto’s deal, which then brings her BFF Natalie back to life, returned to the garage where she was killed.

Yes, years after everyone was adamant for weeks that Mephisto was controlling the events in Westview in WandaVision, Sacha Baron Cohen shows up as Mephisto (after the show teased Dormammu) during a time when… Marvels Studios is actively decreasing its peripheral content. So it’s unlikely now that we’ll get a Season 2 of Ironheart and it’s possible we’ll never watch Riri try to free herself from Mephisto’s dark magic.

However, Mephisto’s such a big Marvel character that Cohen could reprise the role in some other project. It would probably just be un-Riri-related.

Samuel Sterns’ Warning

Granted, this post-credit scene in Captain America: Brave New World felt tremendously tacked on. It’s just Sam Wilson confronting an imprisoned Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) and Sterns seeing bad things ahead, using his brain to run through the probabilities. In fact, this felt a lot like the Lex Luthor moment at the end of Batman v Superman when he predicted the coming of the evil cosmic overlords because Superman died.

“We’ll see what happens when you have to protect this place from the others”… Not the best stinger, admittedly. Haven’t our heroes already protected the Earth from “others”” The Chitauri? Ego? Thanos? The Celestials? This felt pretty flat so just take it as a blanket warning about… things.

Soon to Be Solved MCU Questions (We Think)

Where’s Namor?

One plot thread teased in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever didn’t focus directly on the Wakandans themselves but instead their underwater contemporaries. After Namor is defeated by Shuri and pledges loyalty to her rule, what appears to be a no-strings-attached allegiance quickly turns out to be another play for power. Facing complaints from Namora, Namor explains that he plans to use Wakanda’s unsavoury relationship with the rest of the world as a catalyst for Talokan’s own takeover.

Actor Tenoch Huerta is one of the many, many folks returning for Avengers: Doomsday, so stayed tuned on this one…

Bucky’s Rift With Sam Over the Avengers

Add to this the whopping 14 months in between the end of Thunderbolts and the post-credit scene that introduces the Fantastic Four’s ship.

So Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and the government have decreed that the New Avengers are the Avengers. Sam Wilson, who decided at the end of Captain America: Brave New World to reform the Avengers (which was, at first, President Ross’ idea), disagrees. So does the internet. Bucky tried to talk to Sam about it and “it went poorly.” Sam has now filed for copyright of the Avengers name. So why is Sam so adamant about keeping the name Avengers? Why can’t he just give his new team a different name? Does he even already have a new team assembled? Why is this the straw that breaks the Bucky/Sam back? Also, what adventures have the New Avengers been up to in the year-plus following Thunderbolts?

This has gotta come up in Avengers: Doomsday which, after all, is an Avengers movie.

The “Huge Space Crisis” and the Arrival of the Fantastic Four

Thunderbolts ends with the arrival of the Fantastic Four’s ship, presumably piloted by Reed and the gang (though we’re not 100% on that yet). But even before this, Yelena mentions a “giant space crisis” so something is already going on that others are dealing with, leaving the New Avengers hanging out to dry. We assume the Fantastic Four have arrived because of said crisis, with hopes of thwarting said crisis, but maybe… they’re a byproduct of this crisis?

We can guess that the crisis involves the multiverse… and then also extrapolate that it’s Doom and young Franklin Richards at the center of it, but we’ll need confirmation. How much of the Doomsday movie will be spent showing us everything leading up to this moment — with the missing 14 months on Earth and then also over in the Fantastic Four’s universe — and how much will be spent after? We’ll have to see!

The Extent of Franklin Richards’ Powers (and Doom’s Plan)

In the comics, Franklin Richards is arguably the most powerful human being in any and all universes, able to just think anything into reality. The MCU’s Franklin will likely be cut from the same cloth, which has gotta be why Robert Downey, Jr.’s Victor von Doom breaks into the Baxter Building to greet him (and steal him?). But what is Doom’s plan? What does he hope to gain and how much does he even know bout Franklin’s abilities?

Also, because it wasn’t mentioned in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, what is Doom’s relation to the Fantastic Four? Is he already an arch-villain and personal nemesis of Reed Richards, or is he just an isolationist despot who never shows up to represent Latveria in summits?

Regardless, this is probably all at the root of the “space crisis” from Thunderbolts.

How Will Deadpool Officially Join the MCU?

Deadpool & Wolverine was technically an MCU movie in so far that it acknowledged the MCU and involved the TVA. Deadpool is given an offer to join the MCU but in the end he decides to save his own reality and stay there. But Ryan Reynolds is in Doomsday, and while we don’t know how big a part he has, we assume this means Deadpool will actually interact with actual MCU folks and not the remnants of Fox superhero movies from two decades ago.

How does he get to the MCU? Is he a Nexus being, capable of hopping universes, like America Chavez? Is that why he can break the fourth wall and have meta moments? He does actually appear in the MCU in Deadpool & Wolverine because he has a job interview with Happy Hogan. How did he get there? It’s never explained and it’s just used as a way to set the scene inside Wade Wilson’s head and where he’s at emotionally with Vanessa and his overall life goals.

In the end, the “how” of it all may not matter. Everyone’s gonna wind up in the same stew so there are dozens of ways to account for Deadpool shaking things up with the Avengers and Fantastic Four and the X-Men.

Scorpion’s Revenge on Peter Parker

Here’s another thread we assumed might never return… a pre-Scorpion Mac Gargan confronting Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) in prison at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming. Especially after Toomes got sucked into Sony’s dumb Spider-villain-verse and wound up chatting with Jared Leto’s Dr. Michael Morbius (how did he have Vulture gear? Why didn’t he care about never seeing his family again?).

Anyhow, Michael Mando’s Gargan is officially in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, so the character’s coming back for more. What would make this even better? Bringing Toomes back too and completely forgetting his stint in Morbius entirely.

White Vision Taking Off

While this version of Vision was just built to basically be a government weapon, his conversation with Wanda’s magical recreation of the original Vision caused a complete reboot. White Vision gained all of the original’s memories and declared himself to be the true version before having an identity crisis and flying away to parts unknown.

Though it happened through different means, White Vision in the comics was also born after the original was pulled to bits, and Marvel’s got a whole new show called Vision Quest in the works that’s focused on the character. The series lands in late 2026 on Disney+, with Paul Bettany returning to the dead Vision body that was resurrected using Wanda’s chaos magic in WandaVision — the end result of S.W.O.R.D. Director Tyler Hayward’s Project: Cataract.

Vision Quest stars Bettany, James Spader as Ultron, Emily Hampshire as E.D.I.T.H, Orla Brady as F.R.I.D.A.Y, Todd Stashwick as Paladin, and Faran Tahir reprising his role as Raza from the first Iron Man movie (guess he wasn’t killed by Obadiah Stane after all!).

Forgetting Peter Parker

Following his multiversal adventure in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker made the world a better place for everyone but himself. The world forgot him, meaning he lost his man in the chair Ned and his girlfriend M.J. Though Parker almost goes to his best friends with the full story, he sees how happy they are and decides not to. But surely it can’t end there, right? That would be too sad.

Yeah, this will all be directly dealt with in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, releasing July 31, 2026.

Love and Thunder

As his latest adventure points out, Thor has lost a lot of people, but he seemingly gains someone as he adopts Gorr the God Butcher’s child, Love. While this probably isn’t her real name (Thor obviously isn’t called Thunder either), the pair’s adventures will seemingly shape the future of the Norse god’s MCU adventures.

As for what these will entail, nobody really knows, as Love is a completely fresh character that doesn’t exist in the comics. In the short amount of time we see the two hang out, we learn that Love has some pretty advanced super powers, and she’ll seemingly use them to join Thor in battle as they travel the universe fighting baddies. Maybe she could eventually join America Chavez on the Young Avengers.

Thor becoming an adoptive dad to Gorr’s daughter at the end of Thor: Love and Thunder was a fitting, fun ending for the God of Thunder’s MCU exploits. It doesn’t really need following up on, though Chris Hemsworth is returning for Avengers: Doomsday, so it’s possible we’ll see where Thor and “Love” are at in their adventures. Of course, we don’t even know if Hemsworth is playing the MCU’s Thor or some other multiversal Thor. Or any Thor, actually.

Note: This story was updated on Oct. 15, 2025, with the latest information about the MCU. It was originally published on July 12, 2022.