Thursday night was what comic fans had long been waiting for as Avengers: Age of Ultron debuted domestically, and a new phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was born. Now, the spoilers are out there and the ending has been revealed to see where Marvel will take fans next. The credits scene is out there now too, and it may need some explanation so if you don’t want to be spoiled, you may want to stop reading now.
Seriously, there are SPOILERS throughout this entire article and if you haven’t yet seen Avengers: Age of Ultron , stop reading. You’ve been warned.
All right, so at the end of the film, the Avengers once again head in different directions. Iron Man, aka Tony Stark, drives off. Thor retreats back to Asgard to take care of life back home. Hawkeye contemplates retiring and rejoining his family. Hulk is out in the middle of nowhere and sadly enough, Quicksilver is dead.
Yes, that happened.
As the credits start to scroll, there is a mid-credits scene and no after credits scene. The mid-credits scene is not the one that was leaked online , so that was indeed a nicely done fake. In the real scene, super-villain Thanos (Josh Brolin) appears again and takes out the golden glove known as the Infinity Gauntlet.
There could end up being an alternate ending on the home release later on, but that’s to come in the future and not important right now. Let’s take a look at how things are happening after the ending and credits scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron .
The ending sees Captain America and Black Widow partnered up again and seemingly assembling a new group that includes Vision, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, and War Machine. This not only makes sense for comic book purposes but also easily sets up Captain America: Civil War which pits superheroes against one another under leadership of Iron Man or Captain America.
Hulk, Thor, and Hawkeye may not take part in all of that conflict, but one never knows. If they come back or not, Black Panther and Spider-Man will be joining the fray anyway and adding more super star power.
Then, there is the mid-credits scene with Thanos which actually helps set up the two-part Avengers: Infinity Wars, set to have its first part released on May 4, 2018. Four of the six Soul Gems (stones) he needs to complete the gauntlet include The Space Stone (The Tesseract), The Mind Stone, the Aether (Red Stone), and The Power Stone (Orb) have already been revealed.
The final two stones are likely to show up in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 , Doctor Strange , or Thor: Ragnarok . That will then, in turn, have all the stones revealed for Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet and lead the way to Infinity Wars .
Marvel and Disney are preparing to move away from their focus characters and actors as their contracts come close to ending. They are paving the way for new focal point Marvel characters as the phases move forward.
Not just that, but Avengers: Age of Ultron really sets things up nicely for the next three or four years in the Marvel Cinematic Universe . The spoilers above for the ending and credits scene of the film show that even though there has been so much from Marvel already, there is a lot more to come and it’s going to be awesome.
[Images via Marvel]