Captain America: Brave New World Post-Credits Scene and Ending ...

Are you wondering if there are any post-credits scenes in Captain America: Brave New World? We’ll tell you right here: There is one scene at the very end of the credits. Read on for more on that, but for now…

Full spoilers follow!

We first learned about the film that would become Captain America: Brave New World almost four years ago, in April of 2021, the same day that the finale of the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier dropped. Over the course of its development and production, Brave New World (formerly known as Captain America: New World Order) reportedly suffered from some difficulties, including poor test screenings, various rewrites and reshoots, and entire sequences and characters being cut from the film.

Still, this is the MCU, baby! And that means society demands that we all post-mort not just the ending of the film, but also the post-credits scene. So let’s sprout our CGI wings, put on our Ant-Man… uh, Captain America helmet, and slice some Red Hulk up as we dive in…

Captain America: Brave New World Ending Explained - When Bad Hulks Go Good

The crux of Brave New World involves Mackie’s Sam Wilson/Captain America and Ford’s President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross trying to figure out how to work together for the greater good. As the official Cap now and in the employment of the government, Sam is attempting to balance doing what’s right with what the government prioritizes. This is made clear early on in the film when Sam decides to rescue a group of hostages rather than go after the stolen package of precious adamantium that is their mission to recover, allowing a black-ops team to handle that side of things.

As we’ve seen in the many trailers released for the film, Ross extends an olive branch to Sam and asks him to help reform the Avengers, who apparently have been disbanded ever since Steve Rogers got really, really old and Natasha Romanoff and Tony Stark died. But when Ross is almost killed in an assassination attempt by an apparently brainwashed Isaiah Bradley (friend of Sam Wilson and dubbed by the film as “The Forgotten Captain America” after the American government experimented on and imprisoned him for decades), the president abruptly decides that his partnership with Captain America is over.

As I’ve already noted, most of this plot stuff has long been out there in trailers and interviews. What has been less prominently marketed is the fact that Tim Blake Nelson is reprising his role here as Samuel Sterns from the second MCU movie, 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. Yes, it’s been 17 years since we last saw this character, and no, it has not been worth the wait. Now fully transformed into the gamma-altered super-genius (and Hulk foe) who is known as The Leader in the comics (but is never referred to by that name in the film), Sterns is subtly – or so the Brave New World script believes – manipulating events, and specifically President Ross, from afar. It’s all an attempt to get revenge on Ross, who it turns out has kept Sterns imprisoned since the events of The Incredible Hulk. Sterns wants to see Ross publicly humiliated, and hence never able to regain the trust and love of his daughter Betty (Liv Tyler), which is ultimately his main goal in the film… even though he also, courtesy of his incredible intellect and ability to read probabilities, knows some kind of multiversal calamity is coming. (But more on that in a bit.)

After various hijinks and lukewarm action sequences, things culminate in what should’ve been the highlight of Brave New World: Harrison Ford turning into the Red Hulk and battling Anthony Mackie’s Captain America. But unfortunately, the Red Hulk aspect of the film has been in so much of the marketing that it not only plays as a sort of letdown in the final product, but it feels like a great missed opportunity for a true rug-pull on the audience. Imagine if we had no idea that would happen until we saw it during the course of this story unfolding? Harrison Ford turning into a Hulk?!

This new Captain America pulls a classic Cap and appeals to the good, compassionate side of Red Hulk that he knows is lurking inside him.

During his imprisonment, Sterns provided Ross with a drug that cured him of a fatal heart ailment. The trick is, the pills had a bit of the old gamma radiation in them, and so once The Leader realized that Ross was never going to let him go free, he slowly upped the gamma dose so that eventually Ross would literally Hulk out. It almost happens a couple of times in the movie, but Ross is able to fight it off – like a sneeze that’s almost there, but goes away. (A really angry sneeze.) But in the end, as the Disney marketing department foretold, Ross turns into the Red Hulk during a White House briefing, which is quite embarrassing and definitely wasn’t on the President's Daily Schedule.

Half the White House is destroyed and chunks of Washington, D.C. don’t seem to fare too well either, including the Washington Monument, as Cap and this new Hulk fight it out. The Red Hulk comes off as pretty intimidating at moments in the fight, even if he does sport a CGI’d version of Han Solo’s face – or because of, maybe – and Sam is almost defeated. As the scene nears its climax, Ross/Hulk, as Sam points out, could just finish him off, but this new Captain America pulls a classic Cap and appeals to the good, compassionate side of Red Hulk that he knows is lurking inside him. The Red Hulk reverts to his Ross persona, and the president is medevaced away. 

More From Avengers HQ

In the film’s epilogue, we learn that Ross is now imprisoned on The Raft, ironically the same facility for super-powered individuals where he once placed Sam and the other members of “Team Cap” in Captain America: Civil War. Ross did the right thing and resigned his office, ensuring that the country could move into the Brave New World that the film’s title promises. A treaty is signed between the U.S. and other countries to ensure that the film’s adamantium macguffin will be fairly shared. Isaiah Bradley is freed, having been under the control of Sterns during the assassination attempt, Sam’s new partner Joaquin Torres/the Falcon (Danny Ramirez) is A-OK after being seriously injured earlier in the film, Liv Tyler shows up for a hot second to reconnect with her dad, and Sam is more at peace than ever with the great responsibility of being Captain America.

Is There a Captain America: Brave New World Post-Credits Scene? And Who Are The Others?

There sure is, and it’s not great?

In what feels like it could’ve just been a cut scene from earlier in the film, Sam once again visits someone at the Raft… but this time it’s Sterns/The Leader. After a few words back and forth, Sterns offers a warning:

"We share the same world, don't we? This world you would die to save? It's coming. I've seen it in the probabilities. Seen it plain as day. All you heroes protecting this world, you think you're the only ones. You think this is the only world. We’ll see what happens when you have to protect this place… from The Others.”

Interestingly, this scene seems to jump past setting up Thunderbolts, which is the next Marvel movie set to be released on May 2. I suppose it is kind of setting up Fantastic Four: The First Steps, which takes place in another universe beyond the MCU’s “Sacred Timeline,” and is coming out on July 25 of this year. But really, this seems more like a tease for 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars, which are still a ways off.

Clearly, Sterns is talking about the threat of whatever will lead to the culmination of The Multiverse Saga in Secret Wars. Could it be Robert Downey, Jr.’s Doctor Doom? Is there some element that will lead to Secret Wars that we don’t know about yet beyond universal Incursions (which is how it went down in the comics)? And also, we know Kang is basically persona non grata now, but will he figure into it in some way or just go unmentioned after one Kang variant was seemingly killed in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and another, He Who Remains, was killed in the Loki Disney+ series?

But also… if Sterns knows some kind of Secret Wars event is coming that could destroy the universe, maybe he should’ve been focused on that instead of revenge against President Ross?

What’s Next for Captain America and Who Will Be the New Avengers?

In a fun scene in Brave New World, Sam is reunited with his Falcon and the Winter Soldier partner, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who we learn is now running for Congress! Good for Buck. But during their brief reunion, Bucky gives Sam a pep talk that helps solidify his acceptance of being the new Captain America, telling his friend that while Steve Rogers gave people something to believe in, Sam gives them something to hope for.

Sam will surely have those words on his mind now that he knows from Sterns that a greater threat is coming than Earth has ever faced before. Will it fall to the current Captain America to create a new team of Avengers after all? And how well will he shoulder the burden of leading that team? We can only guess for now, but we at least have some thoughts about what the new Avengers might look like.

We’re assuming that Sam will put together a new roster at some point during Doomsday and that it will consist of some familiar and expected faces as well as some less expected. Of course, presumably every superhero in the MCU will show up by the end of Secret Wars, but we’re not talking about that Endgame-style pile-on here, just the core group who could start things off.

Captain America

Obviously.

The Falcon

Sam basically tells Joaquin at the end of Brave New World that he’s on the team.

Wong

Don’t forget, Benedict Wong’s Wong is actually the Master of the Mystic Arts in the MCU now, not Doctor Strange. He also has been seen working with the likes of Bruce Banner and Captain Marvel, and showing up in a variety of Marvel projects, so it seems likely that he’ll be part of the team too. As for Strange, Benedict Cumberbatch has said his Greenwich Village magic man won’t be in Avengers: Doomsday but is a “central” part of Secret Wars. Figure he’ll pop in with Charlize Theron’s Clea at some point, as the two were last seen heading off to seal an Incursion… the exact thing we believe will lead to the Secret Wars.

Yelena Belova

Marvel Studios seems pretty invested in Florence Pugh’s Black Widow character, and while she’s appearing in Thunderbolts as a member of that unlikely team, she also seems – aside from Bucky Barnes – to be one of the only characters who is likely to a) survive that film, and b) be worthy of joining the Avengers.

Spider-Man

Tom Holland hasn’t played Spidey since 2021’s No Way Home, so his return is way overdue. Word has it he’ll be shooting Spider-Man 4 this summer, with that film intended to be released between Doomsday and Secret Wars. Spider-Man puts butts in theater seats and brings a good dose of humor to heady circumstances as well, so old Webhead seems like a shoo-in here. He also has an emotional connection to OG Avenger Iron Man just as Sam has a connection to Steve Rogers that should not be ignored.

Daredevil

Most of our picks for the main team are of the feature-film variety, but Charlie Cox’s Daredevil has already shown up in a cameo in No Way Home. Plus, he’s just beloved across the board. It would be cool to see his distinctly street-level abilities in a capital-B Big story like this.

Black Panther

Letitia Wright’s Shuri is the Black Panther now, but we haven’t seen her in live-action form since Wakanda Forever when she kicked Namor’s winged butt. We know Sam still has a relationship with Wakanda, and the importance of adamantium and vibranium continues to be stressed in Brave New World, so it seems like a good chance that Shuri will return.

Anyway, that’s just a wish list with a bit of reasoning put behind it. There are plenty of other MCU heroes to choose from, though we’re thinking Hawkeye might be busy minding the burgeoning Young Avengers, Captain Marvel, Thor and Hulk could be out in space (and too powerful to bring in until the final battle), the Fantastic Four are already their own team, etc.

Who do you want to see in the new Avengers line-up? And what did you think of Captain America: Brave New World? Let’s discuss in the comments!

Note: This story was originally published on Feb. 13, 2025. It was updated with full spoilers on Feb. 14, 2025.