Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Marvels.
At the tail-end of its marketing machine, The Marvels suddenly found itself shifted from fun, breezy adventure movie to big, dramatic Avengers: Endgame sequel with vast consequences for the future of the MCU. In actual fact, it’s not like The Marvels is carrying the entire Multiverse Saga on its back, but it is fair to say that it does contain some thrilling moments that are causing a lot of gasps and cheers in theater screenings.
Specifically, The Marvels certainly feeds those who go see every new MCU movie in the hopes of being inundated with mind-blowing cameos. A handful of iconic superhero characters from Marvel’s rich history return, setting up a multitude of Multiverse Saga projects in the process. With full spoilers to come, here’s each and every cameo that occurs across The Marvels‘ nimble 1 hour, 45 minute runtime.
Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson)
This one was perhaps The Marvels‘ biggest open secret for the longest time. Even before Marvel spoiled her appearance in late-in-the-day promos, behind the scenes leaks and the fact that director Nia DaCosta and Tessa Thompson are regular collaborators (Thompson stars in Hedda, the movie DaCosta jumped ship from The Marvels to do) made clear a Valkyrie cameo was coming.
Sure enough, the King of New Asgard turns up early into the film’s runtime, when Carol Danvers calls in a “friend” to help find a new home for the refugee Skrulls of Tarnax. We can assume, then, that the Skrulls will join the many other alien races who have found sanctuary in Valkyrie’s Norway kingdom, as seen in Thor: Love and Thunder.
Carol and Val are depicted as being very close and affectionate in their scene together, which A) must mean the pair became good pals after that A-Force moment in Endgame and B) the fandom’s obsession with shipping “Valcarol” is likely to reignite.
Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld)
Just in case we needed any further proof, Hailee Steinfeld has proven herself to be a peerless actress now that we know every time over the past two years when she’s claimed total ignorance in interviews over her next MCU appearance has been a total lie. The Hawkeye star finally returns for the first time in 23 months in The Marvels‘ very post-credits scene-alike final sequence.
Doing her best Nick Fury impression, Kamala Khan waits for Kate Bishop to get home in order to ask her to join her new “Kid Avengers” initiative. Although we might’ve expected Kate, the comic book leader of the Young Avengers and the oldest on the team (she’s 23, don’t forget), to be the ringleader of the MCU’s next generation of heroes, this scene clarifies that it’s actually all Kamala.
So, yes, after years of teasing, it finally seems like the Young Avengers are truly on their way. Although, given how slowly the Multiverse Saga is progressing, any kind of spinoff project is sadly still a ways away. But watch this space!
Maria Rambeau/Binary (Lashana Lynch)
Lashana Lynch already a cameo earlier in the movie as an elderly Maria Rambeau, in a flashback to Carol’s final visit to Earth prior to the events of Endgame, but we weren’t expecting her to drop by again, this time as a totally different variant of the same character, in the film’s actual post-credits scene.
No, that is not Storm, it’s actually Binary, a variant of Maria’s from another reality that Monica falls into after fixing Dar-Benn’s jump point catastrophe. This is Lynch’s second time playing another Maria who became the Captain Marvel of her reality, following on from the Earth-838 version in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Seeing as Binary is a vastly powerful alternate Captain Marvel in the comics, we’re eager to see how Maria shapes up in further appearances. Which, going by her surprising scene partner in the tag sequence, might just occur in an upcoming, highly anticipated reboot…
Bonus: Beast (Kelsey Grammer)
Yes, he might not exactly be an MCU cameo, but, well, now he is so we couldn’t leave him out. After being rescued by the Binary variant of her mother, Monica is taken to the X-Mansion, whose interior strongly resembles that from Fox’s X-Men movies. What’s more, the hospital she’s treated in is overseen by none other than Dr. Hank McCoy, with Kelsey Grammer reprising his role as the original Beast.
It’s unclear if we’re supposed to think this is the Fox universe, but given that Doctor Strange 2 established other X-Men variants from across the multiverse resemble the Fox versions, then we can probably assume this is an all-new reality. That would explain why Beast looks so different, with his new CGI design more closely resembling the X-Men: The Animated Series character and not Grammer’s prior appearances in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand and 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Where will Frasier Beast return? The X-Men reboot or perhaps even 2004’s Deadpool 3? Thanks to The Marvels, we’re exceptionally excited to find out.