Captain America "4" written by Malcolm Spellman writing with Dalan Musson

[psylockolussus]

I highly disagree that being a good movie means people would instantly show up. See what happened with DCEU with Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad. I can give the latter a pass, but Birds of Prey was released before the pandemic.

So even if all of these Marvel movies end up "good" including the ones from Sony. They shouldn't come out so soon, next to each other. Movie tickets aren't cheap and its easier to watch film on Disney+ and NetfliX.

 

[Mr. Peanut]

I think one part of the problem is the credit scenes they are choosing to do (not all of but some). I looked back at the end credits for the Infinity Saga (not including the clearly joke scenes), a majority of them were set ups for movies that were in the middle of production and coming out the next year. Part of that was due to some scenes that were either shot by the next director (like Gunn directing the Dark World mid-credit scene while he was doing Guardians or Whedon directing the Winter Soldier mid-credit scene while he was doing AoU) while others were scenes from an upcoming movie (IM2 showing the Thor hammer scene or Ant-Man showing the Steve/Sam Civil War scene).

Not all were like this mind you (like the original IM scene with Fury, since Avengers was 4 years out at that point)

Technically that was followed up on somewhat in TiH (with Tony now showing up to talk about the Avengers initiative), and then even more in IM2 where Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. are featured prominently. Then IM2's ending leads directly into Thor, and Thor's post credits teases the tesseract that we then learn about in TFA (which also has Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. show up again and find Steve), which then ends with a tease for Avengers.

It really was just a constant reinforcement of hype for the next thing or nearly the next thing, with a good general idea of what the teases were teasing.

And yeah out of these past two phases the best use of a post credits scene in a movie (so far) wasn't even for a movie, as you said, the BW post-credits tied very directly and clearly into Hawkeye which came out promptly. But man, imagine how the casual movie-only viewers must feel trying to make sense of all these posts-credits teases.

Spoiler: Spoilers for every Phase 4 and 5 post-credits scene

BW: Yelena is sent to go kill Hawkeye. Followed up on in a Disney+ show.

Shang Chi: One post-credits scene sets up a mysterious alien signal from space and the other sets up the return of the Ten Rings organization. Neither have been followed up on and we don't know when or where they will be.

Eternals: One sets up Eris the brother of Thanos...no idea where that's going or why it needed to be teased. Another sets up Blade, which is still years away (four years after Eternals) and many films after Eternals. Only teased because a character from Eternals will also be in Blade (although I've heard that Black Knight might not even be in Blade, so who knows)

No Way Home: Eddie Brock from the Venomverse gets drunk and leaves behind a bit of symbiote. No idea what the heck they plan to do with this or why they decided to introduce Venom to the MCU through a gag scene.


Multiverse of Madness: A mysterious character recruits Dr. Strange to go to the Dark Dimension and stop an incursion (and at the same time an eye suddenly appears on Strange's forehead). Presumably this will be followed up with Secret Wars in 2027, but that's only apparent if you know about the comics Secret Wars storyline and how an incursion creates Battleworld.

Love and Thunder: Zeus sends Hercules to go kill Thor. No idea when or where this will be followed up on.

Wakanda Forever: T'Challa's son is revealed to also be named T'Challa, implying that he'll probably be the next Black Panther at some point. Probably won't be followed up on until after Shuri's actor quits.

Quantumania: The Council of Kangs is revealed and they want to stop the Avengers from messing with the multiverse. Obviously setting up Kang Dynasty in 2026. Probably pretty confusing if you haven't seen Loki and have no comics knowledge, though.


GotG3: One post-credits scene establishes the new GotG team on a space adventure. Another establishes Star-Lord back on Earth. Unclear when or where these will be followed up on.

The Marvels: Monica ends up trapped in an alternate dimension where she meets Beast, played by his Fox actor. I assume this is a tease for Deadpool 3? If so that would be a positive change of pace since it would be the first MCU movie since Phase 3 to tease something that promptly gets followed up on in another movie.

Honestly looking back on it in order it really feels even more random and disconnected than I remembered.

 

[psylockolussus]

Too many ideas, so little time.

And it's happening when MCU already peaked.

 

[Verbal21]

Should’ve just given the shield to Bucky and go from there.

 

[psylockolussus]

Or maybe they should just left off the Captain America mantle to Steve Rogers when he retired. This underperforming or doing as bad as the Marvels in February 2025 would just tarnish the Captain America brand.

Before the Marvels came out, I was eXpecting this to gross at least $175 million in NA, with $250 million as the highest possible number. But after the Marvels... I guess I'd be just fine with this hitting $100 million domestically. But that number won't be good compare to previous CA movies.