SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers for the ending of “The Marvels,” currently in theaters.
At this point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the multiverse is in ruins.
At the end of “The Wonders,” the villain tore a massive hole in the fabric of space and time, causing an alternate reality to appear in the MCU. To fix it, the titular superheroes – Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson); Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani); and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) – must merge their powers and then send Monica across the tear into the other dimension. However, to complete the task, Monica must stay put, trapping her in another universe while Carol Danvers and Kamala Khan mourn her sacrifice.
In the post-credits scene, we see that Monica is very much alive as she wakes up in a strange medical facility. Suddenly, she comes face to face with an alternate version of her late mother, Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), at her side. This universe’s Maria doesn’t recognize Monica and she wears the binary red and white costume from the comics. In the Marvel comics, Binary is a powerful alter ego of Carol Danvers while she was teaming up with the X-Men.
Speaking of the : The Last Stand” in 2006.” (The character was played as a young man by Nicholas Hoult in several “X-Men” films, starting with 2011’s “X-Men: First Class,” and Grammer briefly reprized the role in 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”) Beast’s appearance marks the second “X-Men” crossover in the MCU, following Patrick Stewart’s appearance as Professor Charles Xavier in ” Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” from last year. In “The Marvels”, Beast drops Charles and concludes that Monica comes from another reality parallel to theirs. Monica is now apparently trapped in a universe where the -Men exist, although it’s unclear if it’s the same world as one of Fox’s “X-Men” films.
The second surprise appearance occurs at the end of the film, before the credits have even rolled, between Ms. Marvel and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), introduced in the 2021 Disney+ series “Hawkeye.” Ms. Marvel hilariously recreates the iconic scene from late 2008’s “Iron Man,” when Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) recruits Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) for the Avengers Initiative. Suddenly appearing from the shadows, just like Fury, Ms. Marvel invites young Hawkeye to join a larger team. She also mentions Ant-Man’s daughter Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) – who appeared in this year’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” – as another potential member, suggesting that the Young Avengers from the comics are finally coming to fruition.
Many Marvel fans predicted the formation of the Young Avengers, due to the number of teenage heroes introduced in previous films. In the comics, Bishop and Lang are the first members of the team. There are several MCU characters who seem to be prime candidates for the Young Avengers, such as America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez from “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”), Ironheart (Dominique Thorne from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”), Elijah. Bradley (Elijah Richardson of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”) and older versions of Billy and Tommy Maximoff (first played by Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne in “WandaVision”).
With these teases, it appears the MCU is shaping two of its next major storylines and team-ups. With the main Avengers not reuniting since “Endgame,” the Young Avengers would be a young successor, and since the acquisition of Disney-Fox, fans have been clamoring for the X-Men. Beast’s cameo is only the second X-Men character to cross over into the MCU, but a major step toward the mutants’ grand reception.