Today, Marvel Studios has released The Thunderbolts, a bad guy team-up movie. The film features multiple antiheroes throughout the MCU who take on Sentry/The Void after his introduction into the universe. The team includes Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, John Walker, Ghost, Taskmaster, and Bucky Barnes. The movie seems to be a massive step in the right direction for Marvel Studios, as it currently sits around 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.
One of the biggest marketing stunts the studio has done is with the movie’s title Thunderbolts* with an asterisk. This always meant the team won’t be named the Thunderbolts by the film’s end. Now, during the first post-credit scene, we learn what the team will be called: the New Avengers. Kind of an anti-climactic reveal for the team as many of the original Avengers are still around, like Sam Wilson, Ant-Man, and Thor. Some fans had hoped the team would be called the Dark Avengers from the comics instead. Both teams will appear in Avengers: Doomsday.
The second post-credit scene sets up the next Marvel Studios film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. This will officially be the third (well, fourth if you count the 90s) to get the Fantastic Four right. Everything is in place for the film to succeed, including a retro-futuristic 1960s setting compared to modern day, like the last two iterations. However, according to the director Matt Shakman, the film takes place in the multiverse where no other heroes exist (via MSN). The post-credit scene shows the Thunderbolts/New Avengers learning of something entering the Earth’s atmosphere, and it’s revealed to be the Fantastic Four’s spaceship.
This means their original 1960s Earth has been destroyed either by Galactus (or another multiversal incursion), and somehow they have traveled through the multiverse to the modern-day MCU. It’s currently unknown if Doctor Doom (played by Robert Downey Jr.) originated from this 1960s Earth or another. It would make more sense that Doom originated from the same Earth as the Fantastic Four, as he could escape before this Earth is destroyed without the great Reed Richards’s help. That same hatred for Reed wouldn’t exist if they were from two completely different Earths and had never met before the events of Avengers: Doomsday. However, this is just pure speculation.
Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts is in theaters today