By George Bate & Josh Bate
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for The Marvels
It wouldn’t be an MCU film without a mid-credits or post-credits scene, and The Marvels is no exception. Slowly but surely, the MCU has breached further into the multiverse with Phases 4 and 5, with The Marvels taking another leap toward earning the title of The Multiverse Saga.
Let’s breakdown the marvelous mid-credits scene of The Marvels below.
In the film’s final battle, the villainous Dar-Benn steals Kamala Khan’s band, which, coupled with her own braclet, create another hole in space. This hole is an opening to the multiverse. Monica Rambeau, energized by the powers of Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel, saves the day by closing the tear into the multiverse, but does so from the other side. This leads her stranded in a reality parallel to hers.
The mid-credits scene sees Monica wake up in a medical facility next to what appears to her mom (played again by Lashana Lynch). However, this isn’t Monica’s mom Maria Rambeau, but, rather, a version of her mother from a different universe named Binary.
As Monica awakens, she soon hears the voice of…Hank McCoy, a.k.a. Beast! Reprising his role as the blue mutant character from X-Men: The Last Stand is Kelsey Grammer. Beast explains to Monica that she has somehow transported from a reality different than her own.
Binary, who is an alternate reality version of Monica’s mother Maria in the mid-credits scene, has a rich history in Marvel Comics. In the comics, Binary is not Maria Rambeau, but actually Carol Danvers. The Binary mantle debuted in 1982’s Uncanny X-Men #164. In this comic, Carol Danvers is on a space mission with the X-Men when she is captured and experimented upon by the villainous Brood. The experimentations give Danvers the sort of powers Captain Marvel already has in the MCU. It’s clear then that the MCU version of Binary is something quite different than what’s been shown in the original comics.
Instead, the MCU’s Binary may more closely resemble the character in Kelly Thompson’s Captain Marvel run. In this comic series, Binary is the term used to describe Carol Danvers’ energy form. In this sense, Maria Rambeau in this universe may be this universe’s Captain Marvel.
As for Beast’s inclusion in this mid-credits scene, the MCU has taken another step toward integrating the X-Men into their sprawling universe. This comes after Patrick Stewart reprised his role as Professor Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which followed Evan Peters playing Quicksilver again in WandaVision the year before.
While it’s unlikely an X-Men film in the MCU will debut anytime before 2026, Kevin Feige and company are certainly showing a willingness to introduce (or, perhaps more aptly, re-introduce) audiences to the X-Men. With Deadpool 3 scheduled to be the next MCU film to release (which an adjusted July 2024 release date), audiences better get ready for more mutants to follow up on this exciting mid-credits scene in The Marvels.