Having a post-credits scene is a staple of Marvel movies, but does « Black Panther » follow franchise tradition?
Marvel Studios
It may only be February, but it’s already time for the first of three Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in 2018. “Black Panther” is the last Marvel movie before this summer’s teamup to end all teamups, “Avengers: Infinity War.”
Of course, it’s important for far more than just that reason — “Black Panther” is the first mega-budget blockbuster ever to feature a cast made up almost entirely of black actors. Chadwick Boseman headlines as the titular hero, and the supporting cast is spectacular, with Michael B. Jordan as the villainous Eric Killmonger alongside Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Sterling K. Brown, Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya and many others.
Clocking in at a robust 140 minutes, “Black Panther” is a movie that will test the limits of your bladder if you grabbed a large beverage at the theater. And so once the credits roll you may feel a strong urge to head to the bathroom and want to know if you’re going to miss anything by doing so. And so here’s the skinny.
Also Read: All 49 Marvel Movies Ranked, Including ‘Black Panther’
“Black Panther” contains two extra scenes after the credits start to roll. The first comes early in the credits, about a minute or so in. And the second comes at the very end of the credits. There’s about a five minute gap in between the two, so you probably will have time to run out and come back if there’s not like a long at the bathroom.
Thus concludes the spoiler-free portion of this post. If you don’t want to know any of the details of the post-credits scenes in “Black Panther,” now’s the time to bow out.
Here’s a cool shot from the movie to act as a buffer.
Okay, it’s spoiler time.
The first of the two scenes is sort of a bonus ending of the movie. T’Challa is addressing the United Nations, declaring Wakanda’s intent to, for the first time, work with other countries in order to make the world a better place, following up on the outreach center he’s planning to set up in Oakland. At the end of T’Challa’s address, some smarmy white guy pompously asks how a nation of farmers is going to be able to contribute anything meaningful. At which point all the Wakandans in the room smile wryly.
Also Read: ‘Black Panther’ Grabs Best Rotten Tomatoes Score of Any DC or Marvel Movie
The scene at the end of the credits gives us an update on the status of one Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who at the end of “Captain America: Civil War” was seen being put into what appeared to be cryogenic stasis in Wakanda. But now he’s out and awake, still in Wakanda, hanging out in a hut in one of the rural areas of the country. T’Challa’s sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) pays him a visit, running off the three children who seemingly like to lovingly bother Bucky while he sleeps — and those children call him by a new nickname: White Wolf. It’s a significant thing — White Wolf is a Marvel character, but not one associated with Bucky.
In the comics, White Wolf is a white man named Hunter whose family died in a plane crash in Wakanda when he was a boy. White Wolf was the head of Wakanda’s secret police, the Hatut Zeraze, under T’Chaka. T’Challa abolished the organization when he took the throne, which led to an estrangement between him and the White Wolf, who then became a mercenary.
It’s unlikely that Bucky’s arc from here will follow that of the comic book White Wolf in any meaningful way, the title instead carrying a symbolic parallel — that of a favored adopted son of Wakanda. Since, according to the trailer for “Avengers: Infinity War,” we’ll next see Bucky defending Wakanda from the forces of Thanos, that thought follows.
All 49 Marvel Movies Ranked, Including ‘Black Panther’
With over 30 years of theatrically released Marvel movies, it’s always a good a time to rank ’em all, from « Howard the Duck » to the this year’s landmark « Black Panther. »
49. « Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer »
Just a nightmare. A total nightmare. There have been a number of bad superhero movies, but from the talking gas cloud the filmmakers cast as Galactus to Jessica Alba ‘s dye job, this one transcends bad.
48. « X-Men Origins: Wolverine »
A totally chaotic stir fry of nonsense that tells the story of how Wolverine got his claws. Features an early version of Deadpool (also played by Ryan Reynolds) whose mouth is stapled shut, which should tell you all you need to know about it.
47. « Elektra »
That five minutes when they tried to turn Jennifer Garner into an action star went about as well as it should have.
46. « X-Men: The Last Stand »
Just a total mess, incoherent from the word « go. » After losing director of the first two X-Men films Brian Singer to the first Superman reboot attempt, replacement Matthew Vaughn gave way to eventual director Brett Ratner, who might have killed off the superhero genre entirely were « Spider-Man » not blowing up the box office.
45. « Fantastic Four » (2015)
There could maybe have been a good movie in here somewhere — the cast ( Michael B Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara) certainly warranted one. But this Frankenstein of a film is a behind-the-scenes horror story, and you can see it in the totally disjointed final product.
44. « Daredevil »
This was basically « Early-2000s: The Movie, » with Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell and Michael Clark Duncan as the main players. The cherry on top of this turd sundae was that damn Evanescence song.
43. « Fantastic Four » (2005)
Tim Story ‘s first « Fantastic Four » is just sort of there, challenging you to remember it exists. With Chris Evans, who played the Human Torch here, going on to embody Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that gets tougher every year.
42. « Iron Man 2 »
Swaps Terrence Howard for Don Cheadle, while Mickey Rourke breaks cars with laser whips. Who knows what was going on in this movie, but it was almost OK anyway.
41. « The Punisher » (2004)
This is the Punisher as a straight revenge thriller, and it’s not bad. Thomas Jane performs admirably, but the whole thing is missing that extra something that would have elevated it beyond standard genre fare. Setting it in Tampa didn’t help.
40. « Spider-Man 3 »
Maybe the bad outweighs the good here, but Emo Peter Parker’s dance number remains one of the greatest single moments in any comic book movie, sorry, haters.
39. « Howard the Duck »
A notorious flop at the box office and, yeah, it’s not exactly « good. » But now, 30 years removed from its premiere, « Howard the Duck » is pretty fun as a relic of the ’80s.
38. « The Punisher » (1989)
Dolph Lundgren and Louis Gossett Jr. star in a low-rent ’80s grunge C-level classic. This one’s all novelty value.
37. « Ghost Rider »
For a movie starring Nic Cage about a dude who rides a Harley and turns into a flaming skeleton, this is a surprisingly mundane movie.
36. « The Amazing Spider-Man »
We may never figure out what went wrong with Marc Webb ‘s Spider-Man duology, but his choice of Andrew Garfield to play Peter Parker is still brilliant. It just sucks that this movie doesn’t really make any sense.
35. « X-Men »
The beginning of the current wave of theatrical superhero movies, « X-Men » was kind of a cheapie and it showed. Novel at the time, now it just comes off as unremarkable mid-budget action fare as Fox was merely sticking its toe in the superhero waters. Timid.
34. « The Incredible Hulk »
It’s sometimes hard to remember that this one counts as part of the MCU, since it placed Ed Norton in the Dr. Banner role since inhabited by Mark Ruffalo in the « Avengers » films. It’s also hard to remember because it’s generally not memorable.
33. « Thor »
The fantasy Marvel movie is directed by Kenneth Branagh, who covers the whole movie in canted angle shots and theatrical stylings. It’s pretty boring, also, but at least it looks cool.
32. « The Amazing Spider-Man 2 »
More of the same impossible-to-follow hack-n’- slash plotting from the previous movie, offset by Andrew Garfield continuing to be awesome and Jamie Foxx going way over the top as the big bad.
31. « Thor: The Dark World »
« The Dark World, » in contrast to the first « Thor » movie, is certainly not boring. If anything, it suffers the opposite problem, going so hard and fast that it loses substance.
30. « Blade: Trinity »
Starring a pre-Deadpool Ryan Reynolds basically playing a vampire-slaying Deadpool, throwing out one-liners like his mama’s life depended on it, this may not a « good » movie, but it sure is fun.
29. « X2: X-Men United »
A big step up from the first « X-Men » both in production values and quality, it still lacks much in the way of energy. Which is inexcusable when you’ve got Alan Cumming as the teleporting mutant Nightcrawler all over your movie.
28. « Spider-Man »
Sam Raimi truly assembled the prototypical superhero movie with this first entry in the « Spider-Man » franchise, in 2002. Like « X-Men » before it, « Spider-Man » is a bit underwhelming today, but unlike « X-Men » it was proud of its nerd roots.
27. « X-Men: Apocalypse »
Could have been a bizarre ironic summer classic if it were structured like a real movie and had any character development whatsoever. Instead it’s just a shot of visual adrenaline that I’ll probably want to revisit at some point — but not when I’m sober
26. « Avengers: Age of Ultron »
« Ultron » is frustrating for what it lacks — chiefly the feeling that it’s advancing the overall story arc of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But as with the first « Avengers » movie its weaknesses are overcome by great character work.
25. « Iron Man »
It was Robert Downey Jr. ‘s reemergence on the big screen, and he’s flawless in this origin story that takes Tony Stark from billionaire playboy weapons manufacturer to billionaire playboy other-things manufacturer.
