Thunderbolts has two post-credit scenes – this is what happens in both

Thunderbolts* offers fans not one, but two end credit scenes.

The latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, out in cinemas today, has been lauded by critics as “the best Marvel movie in years.”

Starring Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Lewis Pullman, Hannah John-Kamen, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the film follows an unconventional group of antiheroes who embark on a dangerous mission.

Warning – major spoilers ahead

Harbour’s character Alexei Shostakov (AKA the Red Guardian) affectionately names the group Thunderbolts after his daughter’s (Pugh’s Yelena/Black Widow) childhood soccer team, but the rest of the group aren’t exactly happy about it.

At the end of the film, Louis-Dreyfus’s villainous CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine announces the group’s rebrand as the New Avengers.

The first mid-credits scene pokes fun at this, showing Alexei in the cereal aisle of a grocery store. Alexei holds up a box of Wheaties with the New Avengers on it, attempting to impress a fellow shopper. However, she fails to recognise him and takes the box before humorously discarding it further down the aisle.

The second, post-credits scene has much wider implications for the MCU.

It sees the full team gathered in Avengers Tower (now renamed Watchtower), discussing a copyright dispute with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie’s Captain America) over the Avengers trademark.

Yelena makes reference to an ongoing “space crisis”, potentially teasing Avengers: Doomsday, which will star Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom.

They’re disrupted by a warning that an extra-dimensional ship is entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

Yelena pulls up a satellite image of the ship, revealing the Fantastic Four logo as the Fantastic Four: First Steps theme plays in the background, paving the way for the next Marvel movie. It will be released in July.

The post-credits scene concludes with text appearing on screen: “The New Avengers and Bob will return.” This appears to confirm the characters – including Pullman’s Bob – will return for Avengers: Doomsday, set to be released next year.

Clarisse Loughrey raved about Thunderbolts* in her four-star review for The Independent, writing: “This James Gunn-style team-up movie — starring Florence Pugh and David Harbour — won’t single-handedly save the beleaguered MCU, but it boasts enough surface pleasures that future Marvel filmmakers should sit up and take note.

“Thunderbolts* does feel different to what’s come before, not because of those indie credentials, but because it’s the first of its kind to seem genuinely self-aware,” she added, labeling it “the ultimate Marvel film for now.”