The MCU is back grabbing headlines, but as well as Captain America: Brave New World having to defend itself from rumours of reshoot drama and being hit with one of the lowest MCU ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, it's also had the unwelcome honour of having the "worst" post-credit scene yet.
Given that we've had 35 movies, numerous TV shows, and remembering Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 had five post-credit scenes, it's not a good look.
The new Captain America movie has been enjoyed more by audiences than critics with an 80% Audience rating on RT, but the credit scene has not been so lucky.
But we're here to say that it does at least fix a major MCU problem, so it's not all bad.
While post-credit scenes weren't invented by the MCU, the superhero franchise has popularised them ever since Nick Fury visited Tony Stark to discuss the Avengers initiative at the end of Iron Man, before Tony then appeared in the credit scene for 2008's The Incredible Hulk.
Things are coming full circle with Brave New World acting as a Hulk-lite sequel to the 2008 black sheep. More than this, its post-credit scene seemingly teases Robert Downey Jr's return to the MCU as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday.
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Despite complaints that the post-credit scene of Sam Wilson meeting with Samuel Sterns aboard the Raft is a rehash of the movie's final scene between Captain America and Thaddeus Ross, it's a neat segue into the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday.
While locked up on the Raft, Sterns taunts Wilson over his seeming victory and smugly says, "We'll see what happens when you have to protect this place from the others". Who these others are remains to be seen, and while there are some interesting options, fans hopefully won't have to wait long to find out.
The end of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania featured the Council of Kangs ready to declare war on the MCU, but with Jonathan Majors' axing as Kang the Conqueror being a Multiverse-sized elephant in the room, it's a post-credit scene we'll likely never get a payoff for.
Still, it's possible that Brave New World's maligned post-credit scene was pointing toward that arc, but has simply been retooled. The "others" Sterns is referring to are possibly heroes (and villains) from other realities.
This Multiverse-shattering potential hasn't stopped Brave New World's most-vocal critics from airing their thoughts online, with one sarcastically posting on Reddit saying: "Wow what an impressive post-credit scene. It's not like the past handful of movies has never referenced the multiverse before. So brave and stunning."
Other commenters called the credit scene "absolutely awful", "a sorry excuse" and "pointless" – and that's barely skimming the surface of the backlash to the post-credit scene.
Over on Bluesky, someone called it the "worst post-credit in [the] history of MCU", and other fan comments range from people saying "it's a shit post-credit scene" to "an utter letdown" which only adds to the negativity surrounding the movie.
But at least this credit scene is actually pointing towards something that we know will actually happen.
Hating on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' Pizza Poppa scene is a matter of taste, yet the MCU does have a nasty habit of teasing things that take years to come to fruition… if at all.
Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer is presumably still rotting in jail 11 years after the All Hail the King one-shot. Spider-Man: Homecoming hinted at the Sinister Six via Michael Mando's Scorpion, and even though it's not an official MCU movie, Sony's Morbius doubled down on that tease with Michael Keaton's Vulture.
We've never picked up from Doctor Strange's Baron Mordo cliffhanger, while The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's Power Broker tease seems like it was made for Brave New World, only for nothing to come of it. Eternals is by far the worst offender, teasing a Blade movie that's slipped into development hell and introducing Harry Styles' Eros as Thanos' brother.
It's a problem that's only getting worse, like when Thor: Love and Thunder introduced Brett Goldstein's Hercules for an arc that likely won't pay off until after Secret Wars – if at all. We're also told "the Legendary Star-Lord will return" while Brave New World does the same for Anthony Mackie's Captain America.
The upcoming Avengers double-bill which is rumoured to star basically everybody in the MCU to date will likely fix some of this. MCU fans might yearn for the simpler days of The Infinity Saga, but we'd ask where the same hate was for The Avengers setting up Thanos for Avengers: Infinity War six years before it hit cinemas.
It might not be the subtlest scene, but the Leader's somewhat-hammy monologue is at least teasing something in the immediate future.
Sure, it could have admittedly cued things more excitingly with a shot of RDJ hammering an Iron Man mask into one for Doctor Doom, but you can't win them all.
Captain America: Brave New World is out now in cinemas.
Tom Chapman is a pop culture-loving writer and NCTJ-accredited Broadcast Journalist with over seven years of experience covering the small and silver screen.
Starting his career with a post at Movie Pilot in Berlin, Tom took on freelancing full-time with regular stints at Digital Spy, Screen Rant and Comic Book Resources.
These days, you can still find him covering all things Marvel and Star Wars at Digital Spy, while dipping his toe in bylines at Yahoo! and IGN.
Tom likes to think his spirit animal is a cross between Gale Weathers and Olenna Tyrell.
