Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie Endings That Never Really Paid Off (At Least Not Yet)

Part of what many fans love about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is how Marvel Studios hints at the next big event or reveals surprise character introductions with each movie. It evokes one of the most iconic things about Marvel Comics, with big font stingers exhorting True Believers to stay tuned. Even if the onslaught of MCU media has worn deep tracks in the greater film/TV audience over the last decade, there’s still a thrill to a well-executed stinger or credit cookie.

However, for every promise that the Avengers will return or a tease of Thanos’ threatening rise to power, there’s a chance that we might not see a cool hint pay off down the road. There are several things that have been teased in the MCU, especially in credits scenes that have yet to yield any significant results. While that can be disappointing, especially for fans of newly introduced characters or plot threads, it does speak to the MCU’s renewed ability to adjust course. Not every payoff is worth the investment, unfortunately, and ultimately box office and fan reception determines the future, leaving some threads open and unfulfilled. These are the biggest MCU movie moments that haven’t paid off… yet.

No one can say Simu Liu’s not bringing the energy required for a sequel to “Shang-Chi” to the table. In great news for fans, he’s still his character’s biggest advocate, with his skills as a performer giving life to a wuxia-themed superhero with an unusually rich connection to the then-fledgling multiverse. When last we saw Shang-Chi and his friends and family, there was still a riddle attached to those mystic Ten Rings he wore. Fan speculation and strong clues suggest a tie to “Ms. Marvel’s” multiversal Djinn. But whatever the truth really is, Wong and Dr. Banner haven’t said a peep since.

For those that love a bad babe in charge, “Shang-Chi” also suggested that the fall of Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) was a temporary problem. His Ten Rings criminal enterprise lives on in his daughter, Xu Xialing (Meng’er Zhang), despite promising her brother, Shang-Chi, that she would tear the old empire down. All she’s actually done is bring girl boss energy to the team, training female assassins and warriors alongside the men for goals we’re not yet privy to. We would like to see it.

“Game of Thrones” star Kit Harington seems content to take things in stride wherever possible since the harrowing and controversial last season of HBO’s breadwinner season, and he’s equally chill about the possibility that Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, has shown no potential for a future return. Harington recently spoke about the odds of his return to Marvel, stating that he hopes they’ll do something with the character, but right now, he simply doesn’t know anything, and nothing is currently in the works.

That’s a big change from 2021 and the post-“Eternals” glow, which suggested that Dane’s introduction didn’t just give fans a chance to hear Mahershala Ali as Blade for the first time, but was also a set-up for a larger story for his own character. Unfortunately, a shudder in the multiverse suggest this has all been set aside, especially while Marvel once again figures out the right way to formally introduce the Daywalker Blade, after another shakeup sheds the film’s director. Let’s stow the Jon Snow Knows Nothing jokes and admit that this is another bad twist in a good actor’s career.

There were two major points of contention for fans to debate as “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” series on Disney+ wrapped up. No, not how much we hated US Agent, aka John Walker (Wyatt Russell, doing a fantastic job that earns him a return in the upcoming “Thunderbolts*”), since that seemed pretty damn universal. The first point was the arguably iffy use of the Flag Smashers, who made some good post-Blip points in a muddy mess about unity as a people. The other was who the hell green-lit Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) becoming the villainous Power Broker?

After her heroic departure from “Captain America: Civil War,” where Sharon had been Steve Rogers’ own moral compass, this was the twist nobody wanted. It should have been the impetus for a “Marvel Zombies” moment where Sharon Carter (Hayley Atwell) claws herself out of the grave to personally give her niece an earful. Not even the bedeviled “Secret Invasion” gave Carter fans the out they wanted. The only thing that would’ve made sense out of Sharon selling out her country the second she got her pardon was being unmasked as a Skrull. But that didn’t happen, and her big ticket auction announcement on the courthouse steps still hasn’t paid off. There’s a lot of ways it can still happen, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to be happy about it. Look, can we just… blip this part?

With an aspect of Kang introduced in “Loki” as He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), it seemed like the Avengers finally had their new big bad. Another variant of Kang was introduced in “Ant Man and the Wasp Quantumania” not long after, and this scarier version had an iron grip on the entire Quantum Realm. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) made defeating a Kang look moderately easy, although it took a father’s will to nail the job for good. But the real problem for the MCU’s future lay in the credits scene, where a lot of Kangs — the comic book-infamous Council of Kangs — gathered together to shout their rage at an unfair multiverse.

Then a slew of allegations, followed by a criminal trial, sidelined Jonathan Majors. While Disney and Marvel remain tight-lipped about the conversations they would have held as Majors’ legal troubles worsened, fans quickly twigged to how neatly season two of “Loki” could leave the Kang situation wrapped up. They may be right. With clear shifts to Doctor Doom, who will be played by “Iron Man” star Robert Downey Jr., and Ryan Reynolds’ “Deadpool & Wolverine” showing how to navigate the multiverse without a Kang at the helm, it certainly seems like the Conqueror will be doing precious little of that for a long time.

Over a long career in gonzo horror and superhero sci-fi, James Gunn has made some friends that are cool as hell. From the fan favorite Nathan Fillion to the always excellent Michael Rooker, once a Gunn production gets rolling, you know you’re going to see a few familiar faces return. Possibly one of the most surprising names in the recurring Gunn retinue, though, is Sylvester Stallone. It’s not hard to fall in love with his murderously violent but loyal King Shark over at DC, but Gunn fans first saw Stallone as one of the earliest original Guardians of the Galaxy, the stern Stakar, in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.” It was a cameo that granted him a whole team fans could wonder about, but as of “Vol. 3,” Stakar’s own adventures seem pretty firmly over.

To be fair, Stakar gets a small return in the trilogy finale as the crew that the variant of Gamora (Zoe Saldana) falls in with after the events of “Infinity War.” But that second movie moment made us feel like Stakar (to say nothing of Michelle Yeoh’s Aleta and Michael Rosenbaum’s Martinex) was going to have more to do in the MCU. Gunn even said as much, with a plan to see more of him and his team in the future. With Gunn’s new job as master of the DC Universe, Stakar appears to be lost in space.

A little of Jeff Goldblum can go a long way, but a lot of Jeff Goldblum can also be a joy to let loose. Taika Waititi did exactly that in “Thor: Ragnarok,” casting the eccentric actor as The Grandmaster, one of the immortal Elders of the Universe. With the other known MCU elder being the equally bonkers lord of Knowhere, The Collector (Benecio Del Toro), these ancient beings had clearly settled on a type.

Yet for all his immortality, The Grandmaster is a selfish, sometimes childish twit that thrives on his own version of the nightlife, despite the costs to his Sakaaran subjects. So when Thor and his new friends Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (Waititi) leave The Grandmaster behind, they’ve also done a number on his high life, too. At the movie’s end, he’s surrounded by an angry, hungry mob, and he doesn’t look like he’s going to talk his way out of it.

Whether or not The Grandmaster actually survived the day is unclear, as is whether he and the other Elders ever intend to reappear. The only clue is if one considers the goofy “Team Darryl” short film canon. In which case, The Grandmaster may be laying low as some ordinary dude’s roommate. Unless he got evicted. Which, let’s face it, he probably did.

Unfortunately, for those of us that enjoyed what director Chloe Zhao was trying to cook up in “Eternals,” any follow-up to the world of this unique band of immortals is on pause as of July 2024. The final word comes down from none other than Kevin Feige himself, who says there is no sequel in the works. While that’s understandable, it’s still a loss. Baroque, visually stunning, and laden with glimpses of fascinating lives — we stan Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) in this house — “Eternals” was a weird film with a few big issues dragging it down, such as pretty much everything to do with the Deviants.

While Dane Whitman is left hanging in the wake of this movie, he’s not the only one. Harry Styles as Thanos’ brother Eros remains one of the most out of pocket casting decisions the MCU has ever made, and his reveal — alongside Patton Oswalt as his friend, Pip the Troll — at the end of “Eternals” was certainly a moment to talk about. Just maybe not in the kindest of ways. With the sequel shut down, it’s possible the return of Eros is out the window, too. This one might be for the best. At least Captain America seems primed to finally talk about the big dead Celestial that’s been sitting in the ocean.

If you somehow missed “The Shield” or “Justified,” perhaps “Fallout” finally got you to realize that 2024 Emmy nominee Walton Goggins has always been one hell of an actor to watch. It might have also reminded you that Goggins has indeed long since become part of the MCU, if only for a hot minute in a role that could use a lot of expansion. Sonny Burch is the miniboss of “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” and he’s a greasy nouveau riche black market dealer that’s holding a plot widget the Pym family needs to rescue Janet Pym (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the Quantum Realm.

Burch is quickly sidelined by a deadly situation with the mysterious Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and then further reduced to comic relief as the X-Con crew eventually drag him towards justice. Cute, but Burch (and Goggins) has real potential as another mover on par with the also eternally watchable Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer. With the “Armor Wars” film allegedly still in the mix, that would be a great platform for black market bastards to steal the show. Heck, picture a Tarantino-esque Disney+ “Armor War” prelude miniseries, where Rockwell and Goggins talk crap at each other for an hour and a half. We’d be seated.

“Spider-Man: Homecoming” is not an easy movie to forget. With the legacy of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin as part of Spidey history looming over Tom Holland’s first solo outing, the film needed a top tier villain. With Michael Keaton blasting superhero expectations out of the water for the second time in his life — no one saw his masterclass as Batman becoming such a pop culture giant back in the ’90s, either — the Vulture became someone to dread. With an upgrade from a green onesie to a bomber jacket and high-tech wing-suit, combined with one of the industry’s most intense stares, the Vulture instantly made it to the Goblin-tier.

Yet one thing has gone forgotten since: a credit cookie that shows the Vulture in jail, crossing paths with Mac “Scorpion” Gargan, another Spidey baddie of no small renown. Gargan’s intensity matches the Vulture’s in the quick one minute scene, but years later, nothing’s come of it. Not even one of those clunky (to be kind) Sonyverse villain movies. Tom Holland’s been slated for a fourth “Spider-Man” movie after the spell that changed his life in “No Way Home,” and Michael Keaton continues to be a big screen sensation, so we probably can’t count out Scorpion finally becoming a big player in this version of villain roster. It just hasn’t happened yet.

While we can’t argue too much with the coolness of the on screen results, the original stinger for “The Avengers” still feels like it puts a lot more emphasis on the classic comic book relationship between Thanos (Josh Brolin) and Death than we got. Death, the original Living Dead Girl (and a hottie that once drew Deadpool’s eye as well) is a immortal entity on par with the vaguely defined Eternity of “Thor: Love and Thunder.” She’s a cosmic power, an aspect of the universe, and, originally, the driving force behind Thanos’ mad directive to cull half the universe.

Yet none of that is apparent in “Infinity War,” sidestepped in favor of Thanos’ obsession with the universal division of resources. Or something. Without Death to add another dimension to his violent purge, we can’t help but get hung up on how killing half of everything doesn’t actually fix whatever he thinks his problem is. Thanos is unhinged, a murderous romantic who thinks he’s doing the right thing for noble reasons. What was more noble than love, and how wrenching could it have been if he’d had to choose between his Deathly lover and his daughter, Gamora, there on Vormir? Guess we’ll never know the impact Death could have, at least not yet.

Sam Raimi’s “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness” has a somewhat divided fan following, based heavily on whether or not you were prepared for the Raimi goulash of camp and line-crossing violence. One thing it did do, however, was bring back Baron Mordo (Chiwetal Ejiofor), as the original “Doctor Strange” promised. However, the Mordo we meet this time is a Variant, a survivor of multiversal incursions who’s loyal to the Illuminati and all in on their efforts to prevent any further breaks in reality.

That’s nice, and more Ejiofor is better than less, but it’s not what Strange fans were prepared for after his final scene in the original 2017 film. There, Mordo is still reeling from his perceived ‘betrayals,’ and hopped up on the idea that magic should be ripped from undeserving hands. He illustrates this by tearing the gift out of Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt), setting up a future showdown with Doctor Strange. Seven years later, the Baron Mordo of our primary timeline hasn’t done anything else with his rage. We know you’re supposed to serve revenge cold, but buddy, we’re getting past the expiry date on the package. Come on.

Brett Goldstein may or may not be on your radar, depending on your personal tolerance for “Ted Lasso,” but this sturdy lad with a pretty good beard was a fine pick for Marvel’s Hercules, a character who may also not be on your comics radar, as he’s kind of a cult fave for longtime fans. Nevertheless, the fans in the know were excited to see Russell Crowe’s Zeus pull his favorite demigod son in for a huddle at the end of “Thor: Love & Thunder,” and they’ve been eagerly waiting for the announcement of Herc’s revenge gig on Thor.

They’re still waiting, as it happens, and while “Love & Thunder” isn’t yet a movie lost in the distant past, it was seen by many as a stumble for director Taika Waititi and Marvel STudios. After how well “Thor: Ragnarok” was received, the follow-up was both clunkily paced and insultingly light on Christian Bale’s fantastic version of Gorr the God Butcher. With the roster of upcoming MCU work now shuffled heavily around, Thor’s future is currently so veiled you’d need to bribe the Norns to guess whether we’ll ever see him follow up with Zeus’ best boy. If you know your mythology, maybe don’t try that at home.