The mid-credit and post-credit scenes in The Fantastic Four: First Steps go where you think they’ll go… at least, until you stop to think, What does this really mean?
In spite of dangling plot threads scattered across 17 years of post-credit scene teasers, Marvel has yet to slow down its efforts in dangling a sequel carrot at the end of every MCU movie. We even get mid-credit scenes now, too! That’s a lot of setup potential.
But the one plopped into Fantastic Four might be the clearest alley-oop in Marvel history. All roads lead to Avengers: Doomsday, currently in production. But how this mishmash of MCU Phases 5 and 6 and Kevin Feige’s rewired continuity plans come together in a coherent, fulfilling way is the real mystery teased in this brief look ahead.
[Ed. note: This post contains major spoilers for the ending of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, including the credits scenes.]
What happens (and doesn’t) in Fantastic Four’s mid-credits scene
(Or maybe it’s just Mr. Doom? The comics have yet to verify Victor’s doctorate diploma…)
Marvel’s much, much-anticipated #1 Latverian baddie seemingly pops up in a mid-credits sequence set #four-years after the events of First Steps. Marvel has yet to confirm whether that’s Robert Downey Jr., star of 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday, under the mask. In the scene, we only see a single shot of Doom crouching in front of super-toddler Franklin Richards, mask in hand, green-caped-and-hooded back toward the camera. Amazingly, it’s not too far off from this AI-generated fan video published days before opening??? People are sick.
The scene still gets the brain-gears turning: Like Galactus, who wanted that baby, Doom knows Reed and Sue’s dear sweet son Franklin is a special lad. As depicted, in the time it takes Sue to go retrieve a picture book from the shelf, Doom has crept into the Richards’ Baxter Building apartment and gone full Steve Buscemi in Con Air on the poor unsuspecting child. What he intends to do next, and how that bridges Avengers: Doomsday, is the big unknown. Is this Doom from Earth-828, the dimension in which the Fantastic Four exist, or has he traveled from another pocket of the multiverse?
Doom may not even exist on Earth-828, the Fantastic Four’s home planet/multiverse designation. His traditional stomping grounds of Latveria certainly does — we see signs marking its ambassador’s seat when the Fantastic Four visit the United Nations. But if a version of Victor von Doom inhabits First Steps’ version of Earth, he isn’t enough of a threat to the world to earn a name-check alongside villains Red Ghost, Puppet Master, Wizard, and Diablo. Maybe that dimension’s version of Doom actually graduated from medical school and opened a practice?
The alternative is that this Doom stepped out of a TVA-esque portal from another plane of existence, knowing that Franklin was a precious source of cosmic power. (Or more specifically, the Power Cosmic.) There’s plenty of reason to think that’s true, based on what we know about Avengers: Doomsday. But before we get to that: the actual shocker of First Steps’ mid-credits scene.
Earlier this summer, Thunderbolts* wrapped up with a post-credits scene that set a clear stage for future Marvel movies: the Fantastic Four’s ship is spotted heading toward Earth-616, the main MCU setting. In the tag, the New Avengers spot an “extra-dimensional” craft, the Fantastic Four’s spaceship, blasting through Earth’s atmosphere. The reveal looms over so much of First Steps, from the team’s brush with a black hole in deep space to its ultimate plot to punch Galactus through a homemade portal on Earth — you’re just waiting for Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben to get zapped from 828 to 616. Oh, they’re saving it for the post-credits scene, of course! I thought. Nope.
Despite that cameo from what we have to assume is Doctor Doom (unless it’s some tricky fake-out, like a Doombot), possibly traversing the multiverse, Fantastic Four: First Steps plays out entirely in the 828 universe. The Thunderbolts* stinger remains on the yet-to-be-paid-off Marvel credits-scene tease list. So what does it all mean for Avengers: Doomsday? Casting, leaks, and rumors paint a potential picture.
Franklin, Avengers: Doomsday, and the road to Secret Wars (spoilers)
Image: Marvel Studios/YouTube
Here’s what we definitively know about Avengers: Doomsday:
- Joe and Anthony Russo (Avengers: Endgame) are back directing the picture.
- The movie is scheduled for release on Dec. 16, 2026.
- Robert Downey Jr. leads an ensemble that includes the cast members from Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts*, past Avengers movies, and even the 20th Century Fox-era X-Men movies. It’s stacked.
That’s it! While photos from the in-production film are slipping out from the set, even the leaks are mundane. Would you believe Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s The Thing was spotted on a spaceship bridge alongside Wyatt Russell’s U.S. Agent? Believe it!
But Fantastic Four: First Steps confirming that Doom is after Franklin, and potentially hunting him from across the multiverse, empowers a major rumor that has only existed as whispers. As the story goes, Doomsday will lift heavy inspiration from Jonathan Hickman’s writing runs on Avengers, New Avengers, and the culmination, 2015’s Secret Wars, and find the ol’ Doctor orchestrating multiversal madness in order to become a god-tier entity reigning over a single cobbled-together universe. Here’s a deeper dive into all those shenanigans, because boy, it’s a lot!
But in short: Instead of obtaining the power of the Beyonders, Doomsday Doom could wield an Omega-level mutant to condense a multiverse into what in the comics is known as Battleworld — the main locale of Secret Wars (and theoretical main locale of Avengers: Secret Wars, coming to theaters in 2027).
A good chunk of Doomsday could focus on a clash between Avengers and X-Men with RDJ’s Doom cackling in the background, with a kidnapped Franklin by his side. The premise certainly gives the Fantastic Four a reason to breach their multiversal walls and zip over to 616 to meet the New Avengers.
Is this Doctor Doom actually a variant of Tony Stark? It’s not unheard of. But Feige and director Matt Shakman resist the urge to give even a modicum of real info away by the end of Fantastic Four: First Steps — only the promise of more. Expect a steady stream of rumors for the next 18 months.
Oh wait, what about the post-credits scene?
We love a just-for-fun post-credits moment, don’t we, folks? James Gunn may have been poking fun at Marvel with Superman’s double dose of credit-scene irrelevancy, but Feige knows how to tickle the MCU fans too. The actual post-credits sequence, dropped at the very end of the credits after an inspirational Jack Kirby quote, is an extended intro sequence from the fake in-universe Fantastic Four cartoon. Produced by Titmouse, a leading purveyor of modern 2D animation, the snippet is about 8,000 times better than the actual 1994 Fantastic Four cartoon. In the absence of an actual clip from the movie, enjoy (?) this instead.
