The Marvel Cinematic Universe is known for setting up some of the most significant events that would be dealt with in future projects. This has been done with the post-credits sequences in each movie that give us a hint of what might end up happening in the future. At the same time, these scenes would set up a larger narrative as a part of the MCU. With shows being released as a part of the franchise each episode was often left with cliffhangers for keeping us hooked to the next one. Let’s take a look at some of the greatest cliffhanger endings in MCU till now.
Tony Stark Reveals His Identity (Iron Man)
Iron Man started the MCU and it is one of the best origin stories that we have gotten from the franchise. The movie is riddled with details that make it one of the most significant projects in MCU history. While the post-credits scene did introduce us to Nick Fury and a chance at the Avengers initiative, there was a big moment that left us speechless. Throughout the movie we see Stark keeping the fact that he is Iron Man a secret. But right around the end of the movie Stark attends a big press conference where he was supposed to keep this charade and he throws away the script and declares, “I am Iron Man.”
Thor & Loki Discover A Ship Looming Over Them (Thor: Ragnarok)
Things in the MCU had gotten pretty serious as we neared the events of Avengers: Infinity War. Thor: Ragnarok would be the movie that would redeem the Thor movies with an entry that saw significant development in the character. But at the same time, he would also see some serious loss with the death of his father and Asgard being destroyed. The mid-credits scene of the movie would show some darker things at play when Thor and Loki would have a complete change of expressions when a ship approaches them. We would later find that this was Thanos himself and he would kill everyone on Thor’s ship including Loki.
Thanos’ Snap (Avengers: Infinity War)
While promoting the movie, Mark Ruffalo said, “Everybody dies in this one.” Everyone assumed that this was a joke and didn’t bother to look into it as a piece of essential information. It is only after viewing the movie that fans will realize that this was actually true as the movie ends with almost everyone dying except for the original Avengers. This has to be one of the grimmest endings that we have gotten from the franchise. It came as an absolute shock when fans exited the theater without any idea of what was going to happen next in the franchise.
Scott Is Left In The Quantum World (Ant-Man And The Wasp)
This was MCU’s entry right after Infinity War and it provided a lighter tone that helped the fans ease to the impact that it had left. The movie didn’t really have much to offer except for building upon the concept of the quantum world. That would come as a matter of significance later in the franchise. We saw that Scott was sent into the Quantum Realm and everyone monitoring outside was dusted away. This was a massive cliffhanger as we were left wondering who would come to the scene and get Scott Lang out of there. The whole of this would come to use in Endgame for the time travel narrative.
Spider-Man’s Identity Is Revealed (Spider-Man: Far From Home)
Far From Home was released right after the end of the Infinity Saga. The movie had to deal with the loss of Iron Man as the character was a mentor to Spider-Man. Peter was dependent on him from the very start as Stark paved the way for him to be an Avenger. But the movie also managed to continue the narrative of Iron Man being primarily responsible for some of the major villains in Spider-Man’s narrative. It ended up giving us a much darker version of a cliffhanger that we had experienced before. The movie ends with Spider-Man’s identity being revealed to the world as J. Jonah Jameson reports with a clip from Mysterio himself.
Wanda Hears Billy And Tommy Calling Her (WandaVision)
The end of the Infinity Saga seems to have paved the way for a lot of other different events taking the place. Phase 4 of the franchise saw the very first series canon to the MCU with WandaVision. This show took us through a crazy journey exploring the chaos that unfolds when Wanda has broken down over the number of losses that she had experienced. It ends with Wanda dropping everything giving in to the reality of her circumstance. But right around the very end as she is studying the Darkhold, fans can see that she hears her twin children were calling for her. This actually is further confirmed by the fact that her eyes glow red.
Multiversal Chaos Cliffhanger (Loki)
Each episode of Loki had a cliffhanger of its own and it left fans wondering about the next episode. But the final episode actually took things completely off the rails with Sylvie killing He Who Remains. It was indicated that we will get to see Kang the Conqueror make his appearance in the franchise now. That was a cliffhanger in itself until we saw the Loki had ended up in an alternate universe with the events of Kang’s arrival already at works. This was clarified by the presence of a massive statue of the multiversal villain at the TVA headquarter.
Arishem Takes The Eternals Away (Eternals)
Eternals might be the oddest entry to the MCU but it did manage to get us excited. Fans were left wondering about the next turn that the franchise will make considering we were dealing with things larger than ever seen before. Even though the characters manage to save the world, Phastos, Sersi, and Kingo are abducted around the end by their creator, Arishem himself.
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