Captain Marvel is finally here and we're here to help break down those end-credits scenes. This happens to be a particularly important entry within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not just because it's Brie Larson's first go around as Carol Danvers, which also serves as the first ever female-fronted solo title in the MCU, but because it's the last movie in line before Avengers: Endgame hits next month. And best believe, these scenes helped tee up the action coming our way.
Warning: spoilers ahead for Captain Marvel. Those who haven't seen the movie yet and wish to go in with a clean slate would do well to turn back now. The first post-credit scene is easily the most tantalizing. In it, we see Captain America, Black Widow, Bruce Banner and Rhodey all dealing with the aftermath of Thanos' deadly finger snap from the end of Infinity War. They're all just watching the death toll rise in pure shock. Cap says, "It's a nightmare," to which Black Widow replies, "I've had better nightmares."
We then see that they've found the pager that Nick Fury used to page Captain Marvel in the Infinity War post-credit scene. Banner is fiddling with it and they clearly have no idea what it is exactly or who it was meant to contact. After Cap insists that they power it up again, the camera pans dramatically to show us that Carol has arrived back on Earth and has located the remaining Avengers. The gang is stunned and the whole thing is punctuated with a very dramatic line from Ms. Danvers that really sets the table.
"Where's Fury?"
As we saw in Captain Marvel, Carol and Fury developed a pretty serious bond. While we have no idea where she's been for the past 20 plus years, no doubt, she's going to be extremely upset to learn that Thanos killed one of the people she cared for most. Not to mention half of all life in the entire universe. Given how powerful Brie Larson's titular hero is, it would seem the Mad Titan is going to have his hands full in the forthcoming round two.
Beyond that, this tells us that directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo aren't going to waste too much time dragging out the introduction of Captain Marvel in Avengers: Endgame. While her entry certainly won't feel forced, it doesn't seem, there are bigger fish to fry. As we've seen in the past, these guys know how to manage a pretty stunning balancing act with a lot of characters.
Next up is that perhaps less thrilling, but still very important second post-credit scene involving Goose the cat, everybody's favorite feline, or should we say flerken, aka crazy alien tentacle monster. One of the shocking reveals in Captain Marvel is that Carol's old Kree counterpart Dr. Lawson was actually using the Tesseract, the Infinity Stone first introduced to us in Captain America: The First Avengers, to build technology that would help end the Kree/Skrull war. Eventually, Goose, being the all-powerful flerken he is, swallows the Tesseract and it isn't seen again. Nick Fury holds onto Goose for safe-keeping, given Carol's request that he keep an eye on the Tesseract.
The second post-credit scene is rather simple. It sees Goose cough up the Tesseract on Nick Fury's desk. It isn't entirely clear when this happens in the overall MCU timeline. What we know that Fury held the Infinity Stone at S.H.I.E.L.D. for safekeeping until Erik Selvig began running experiments on it, ultimately leading us to the events of The Avengers, in which, Loki tries to steal the Tesseract for Thanos, bringing things full circle. Well played, Marvel.