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The Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s credit scene explained

We dissect Marvel’s mysterious scene, introducing some familiar faces. *Spoilers ahead!*

What does the Captain America: The Winter Soldier's credit sequence mean? (Credit: Marvel)

With ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ still tearing up the cinema, fans are recovering from what’s been hailed as perhaps the most intense Marvel movie yet.

And, like most of the studio’s movies, Steve Roger’s second solo outing finished up with a trademark mid-credit teaser to keep us wanting more. But what does ‘The Winter Soldier’s’ sign-off actually mean for the Marvel cinematic universe?

We don’t need to tell you, there are SPOILERS AHEAD...


What happens?
‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ actually contains two credit sequences, but it’s the first one, halfway through the roll call, that’s most definitely worth discussing…

[First Avengers: Age of Ultron footage leaked from set]

At a HYDRA research facility a team of scientists examine Loki’s mind-controlling Chitauri Sceptre. Overseeing the operation is a monocle-wearing man with facials scars and a shaved head. He boasts about destroying SHIELD, and explains how fortunate it is for HYDRA that no one there understands Loki’s staff real power.

The man then walks around the corner to a different room of the facility, and talks with an aide about activating “the twins”. The camera then spins to show two jail cells. In the left one a tall, thin man with white hair is writhing nervously – blurring as he jitters around the room. In the right cell a dark haired woman is huddled by a wall. She’s holding out her hands with several small blocks levitating between them. The scene cuts to black.



Who’s in it?
The monocled man will be recognisable to some Marvel fans as infamous ‘Captain America’ villain Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Played by German actor Thomas Kretschmann, the ruthless HYDRA officer will appear in ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’. However it’s the introduction of “the twins” that is the most exciting…

Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (played by ‘Kick Ass’ star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and ‘Godzilla’ actress Elizabeth Olsen) will be recognised by their infamous ‘X-men’ names: Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch.

Cult character Quicksilver’s main power is being able to move and think at super human speed. The Scarlet Witch’s abilities are notoriously more difficult to define: she uses spell-like “hexes” to manipulate probability (in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s thought this will be changed to telekinetic powers).

[Nick Fury’s role in Avengers 2 is just a cameo]

In the comics the twins are members of the Brotherhood Of Mutants, and the children of iconic ‘X-Men’ bad guy, Magneto. However they eventually reform and join The Avengers, where they are seen as regular heroes on the Avengers’ roster.

Both characters are set to play key roles in ‘Age Of Ultron’, and were even recently snapped on the set of Marvel’s Phase Two finale, in Italy.


What does this mean for Marvel?
It’s not yet clear how important Baron von Strucker will be to the plot of ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’ (James Spader’s Ultron will be the main antagonist), however Strucker does appear to have control over Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch.

The Twins clearly aren’t in league with HYDRA (probably why they’ve been locked up), but don’t expect them to be joining forces with The Avengers just yet – that’d spoil all the fun to be had.

Is this the start of an Avengers/X-Men crossover?
Sadly, no. Twentieth Century Fox, who own the ‘X-Men’ franchise, are unlikely to team-up with studio Marvel anytime soon – no matter how much the fans might want it. The only reason ‘X-Men’ characters Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch can appear in a Marvel movie is because the two studios actually share the rights to the characters – as they feature in both the ‘X-Men’ and ‘Avengers’ back catalogues.

Interestingly Fox also own the rights to the word “mutant”, which is why Strucker and his aide describe Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch as being from the “age of miracles”… and not actually mutants.

All this studio silliness has resulted in the bizarre situation where TWO different Quicksilvers will appear in two different franchises at the same time. The character is also being played by US actor Evan Peters in ‘X-Men: Days Of Future Past’, out 22 May 2014. Though some insiders have suggested Marvel chose to introduce their version now, despite ‘Age Of Ultron’ not arriving till 2015, just to beat movie making rivals Fox.


What about the Sceptre’s mysterious power?
Loki’s Chitauri Sceptre, and Strucker’s quip that no one understands it’s power, hint at Marvel’s bigger picture for their movies – as studio boss Kevin Feige has previously stated that we’re dealing with one of the Marvel universe’s coveted Infinity Gems here.

In the comics, there are six of these mysterious stones which, when possessed by one person, grants them incredible power.

[Chris Evans to retire from Captain America by 2017?]

We’ve already seen two: The Tesseract from ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, and the Aether from ‘Thor: The Dark World’ – which we saw handed over to The Collector, played by Benicio Del Toro, in the mid-credit sequence.

Del Toro is also the villain of this summer’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, which is set to feature another of the Infinity Gems. He's said to work for Thanos, the creepy blue-faced dude that was revealed as Loki’s chief string-puller in the mid-credit sequence of ‘The Avengers’,  and acts as a custodian for the gems on his behalf.

Thanos has been teased as the main villains of ‘Avengers 3’, so expect to hear more about the Infinity Gems over the course of the next few Marvel films.

‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ is out in cinemas now. ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’ hits UK screens 24 April 2015.

Check out our incredible gallery of 86 Marvel Movie In-Jokes That Will Blow Your Mind, below: