In Marvel’s newest movie, The Marvels, Monica Rambeau goes higher, further, faster – into a totally different reality.
The latest Marvel installment, a direct follow-up to 2019’s Captain Marvel as well as a continuation of WandaVision and Ms. Marvel on Disney+, unites a trio of marvel-lous space-faring heroines for a cosmic adventure throughout the stars. Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) join forces to stop Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), a vengeful Kree warrior who seeks to plunder different planets for their resources — including Earth for its sun — to save her own home. But the final fight between Carol, Monica, Kamala, and Dar-Benn ends up having consequences that reverberate throughout the MCU — and leads to a mid-credits scene that might be one of the biggest nods to the upcoming Avengers sequels yet.
Here’s what goes on in both the mid-credits and post-credits of The Marvels.
Warning: Spoilers for The Marvels ahead.
What Happens in the Mid-Credits Scene of The Marvels?
X-Men fans, your patience is being rewarded.
After the movie’s climax sees Monica trapped on the other side of a strange reality, Monica wakes up in a strange laboratory facility. Upon waking, Monica is deeply emotional at the sight of her mother, Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch). While Monica is overcome with equal parts love and shock, Maria is more weirded out and distant, as if she’s meeting a total stranger.
Suddenly, a towering blue figure in a lab coat walks by, who asks Maria about their “mysterious visitor.” (Maria replies, “She seems a little disoriented.”) When Monica inquires where she is, the figure turns around to reveal himself: Beast, one of the X-Men, played again by Kelsey Grammer. (The Frasier star played Beast in the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand.)
Beast, who refers to Maria Rambeau as “Binary,” explains that Monica crossed through a “tear” in realities, leaving her stranded in a different universe. Beast comments that this is “impossible,” though the man clearly hasn’t met Doctor Strange or any of the three Spider-Mans.
Beast and Maria briefly converse (including a quick mention of “Charles,” confirming Professor X’s existence in this alternate reality) before Beast leaves, leaving Monica and Maria alone to actually talk. Maria stands tall in the red and white costume of Binary, one of many different alter-egos associated with Carol Danvers in the comics. The scene ends with Maria/Binary asking Monica who she is, leaving Monica heartbroken that the person she thought her mother… isn’t.
What Does Beast and Binary Mean for the MCU?
Obviously, the table is slowly but surely getting set for Avengers: Secret Wars, which is slated for release in 2027. The movie is set to cap off what is called “The Multiverse Saga,” in which the MCU doesn’t just encompass one reality but many, including Marvel’s other film franchises like the X-Men, Deadpool, and more.
Monica has landed herself in a yet-to-be-determined reality; neither Beast nor Maria confirm what numbered Earth they reside in. We can deduce it is a different reality than Earth-838 (seen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), which had the Illuminati members including Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) violently massacred by Wanda. In The Marvels, Beast’s mention of Charles wanting an update naturally implies that their Charles Xavier is still alive.
We can also safely guess this alternate Earth is different from the one seen in all previous X-Men movies. In those movies, no other superheroes were ever confirmed to exist. So Lashana Lynch’s inclusion as Binary (a superhero who is canonically not a mutant) helpfully eliminates the possibility of the MCU revisiting the existing X-Men movie canon. It’s merely fan-service that The Marvels enlisted Kelsey Grammer to reprise his cinematic role as Beast, who sports a slightly different look than he did in The Last Stand.
While it’s unclear at this point what precisely is in store for Avengers: Secret Wars, The Marvels’ head-turning mid-credits scene has at least planted the first real connection between the MCU and the X-Men. No, this isn’t the first time the X-Men have been hinted at; WandaVision famously toyed with it by casting Evan Peters as Quicksilver, and Ms. Marvel herself was confirmed to be a mutant at the end of her series. But with Monica stuck on a different Earth, she is now a living bridge across realities and teams.
What Happens in the Post-Credits of The Marvels?
Given how huge the mid-credits of The Marvels is, the movie has some fun with the actual post-credits. There is no actual post-credits scene, other than a fluffy Flerken (maybe Goose) coughing up more S.A.B.E.R. crew members or junk they swallowed up. As the “post-credits” of Spider-Man: Homecoming reminded us, patience is a virtue, even if you get nothing in return.
