Post-Credit Cliffhanger Analysis

Hey everyone, hope you're ready for a new year of lots of reading orders. I just added the A.X.E.: Judgement Day reading order today, and I should have another massive 200-300 issue update to the Modern Age Begins reading order in the coming weeks. Also remember to check out our new Discord, lots of fun conversation going on over there.

Today I wanted to continue in my series of random posts with an analysis I've done of MCU post-credit scenes. I've seen a lot of complaints from the fandom that Phase 4 is introducing too many cliffhanger scenes that aren't being followed up quickly enough. I did some calculations to determine what the average length of follow up time was for scenes in each of Phases 1-3, and some predictions for Phase 4. I think the results might surprise you. If you want more random posts like this let me know!

Phase 1

Iron Man Scene: Stark meets Nick Fury

Follow Up: Iron Man 2, 2 years later

Incredible Hulk Scene: Stark visits General Ross

Follow Up: The Consultant, 3 years, 3 months later

Iron Man 2 Scene: Thor's hammer arrives

Follow Up: Thor, 1 year later

Thor Scene: Fury shows Selvig the Tesseract.

Follow Up: The Avengers, 1 year later

The Avengers Scene: Introduction of Thanos

Follow Up: Guardians of the Galaxy, 2 years, 3 months later

Average time to follow up: 1 year, 11 months

Phase 2

Thor: The Dark World Scene 1: Agardians deliver the Aether to the Collector

Follow Up: Guardians of the Galaxy, 9 months

Thor: The Dark World Scene 2: Thor returns to Earth to be with Jane

Follow Up: Avengers: Age of Ultron, 1 year, 6 months

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Scene 1: Hydra's experiments unlock powers in the Maximoff twins

Follow Up: Avengers: Age of Ultron, 1 year

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Scene 2: Bucky visits his memorial and seems to have some memories back

Follow Up: Captain America: Civil War, 2 years

Guardians of the Galaxy Scene 1: Baby Groot

Follow Up: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, 2 years, 9 months

Guardians of the Galaxy Scene 2: Howard the Duck escapes from the Collector

Follow Up: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, 2 years, 9 months

Avengers: Age of Ultron Scene: Thanos puts on the Infinity Guantlet

Follow Up: Avengers: Infinity War, 3 years

Ant-Man Scene: Hope gets the Wasp suit

Follow Up: Ant-Man and the Wasp, 3 years

Average time to follow up: 2 years, 1 month

Phase 3

Captain America: Civil War Scene 1: Introduction of Wakanda

Follow Up: Black Panther, 1 year, 9 months

Captain America: Civil War Scene 2: Peter returns home with new suit

Follow Up: Spider-Man: Homecoming, 1 year, 2 months

Doctor Strange Scene: Mordo decides to kill magic users

Follow Up: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (barely), 5 years, 6 months

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Scene 1: Kraglin acquires Yondu's fin/weapon

Follow Up: Thor: Love and Thunder, 5 years, 2 months

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Scene 2: Stakar reunites his team

Follow Up: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (presumably), 6 years

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Scene 3: Ayesha creates Adam

Follow Up: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (presumably), 6 years

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Scene 4: Reveal of teen Groot

Follow Up: Avengers: Infinty War, 1 year

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Scene 5: Reveal of the Watchers

Follow Up: What If...?, 4 years, 4 months

Spider-Man: Homecoming Scene: Toomes keeps Spider-Man's identity a secret in prison

Follow Up: Morbius (???), 4 years, 9 months

Thor: Ragnarok Scene: A large ship shadows the remaining Asgardians

Follow Up: Avengers: Infinity War, 6 months

Black Panther Scene 1: T'Challa reveals the truth about Wakanda to the world

Follow Up: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (presumably), 4 years, 9 months

Black Panther Scene 2: Bucky continues his recovery in Wakanda

Follow Up: Avengers: Infinity War, 3 months

Avengers: Infinity War Scene: Fury pages Captain Marvel

Follow Up: Captain Marvel, 10 months

Ant-Man and the Wasp Scene: Scott is trapped in the quantum realm after Hope, Hank, and Janet die

Follow Up: Avengers: Endgame, 10 months

Captain Marvel Scene: Captain Marvel arrives at the Avengers compound

Follow Up: Avengers Endgame, 2 months

Spider-Man: Far From Home Scene 1: Mysterio reveals Spider-Man's identity

Follow Up: Spider-Man: No Way Home, 2 years, 5 months

Spider-Man: Far From Home Scene 2: Talos attempts to contact Fury in space

Follow Up: Secret Invasion (presumably), 3 years

Average time to follow up: 2 years, 10 months

Phase 4

WandaVision Scene: Wanda uses the Darkhold to find her children

Follow Up: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, 1 year, 2 months

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Scene: Sharon rejoins the CIA and plans to trade government secrets

Follow Up: Captain America 4 (presumably), 3-4 years

Black Widow Scene: Yelena is tasked with hunting down Clint 

Follow Up: Hawkeye, 4 months

What If...? Scene: Captain Carter returns to her universe and finds the Hydra Stomper armor

Follow Up: What If...? Season 2 (presumably), 2 years

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Scene 1: Wong and the Avengers to discuss the origin of the Ten Rings

Follow Up: Shang-Chi 2 (presumably), 3-4 years

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Scene 2:

Follow Up: Shang-Chi Disney+ spinoff (presumably), 3-4 years

Eternals Scene 1: Eros arrives to help the remaining Eternals

Follow Up: ???

Eternals Scene 2: Dane is confronted by Blade

Follow Up: Blade (presumably), 3 years

Spider-Man: No Way Home Scene: Venom returns to his universe after leaving behind a piece of the symbiote

Follow Up: Spider-Man 4 or Secret Wars (presumably), 2-3 years

Average time to follow up: 2 years, 4 months

So far it seems like if my predictions are correct, the wait for a follow up to some of these post-credit scenes won't be much longer than they have been in previous phases. I think the main difference is instead of the MCU telling one overarching story, they are now telling multiple larger stories in addition to the overall Multiverse/Kang saga.