Spoiler alert: This post contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Now that Spidey's officially part of the MCU, he's ready to participate in a long-standing MCU tradition: the post-credits scene.
In fact, Spider-Man: Homecoming has not one but two of those. One falls midway through the credits, while the other comes at the very, very end.
One serves up a big hint about Spidey's future, whereas the other ... well, you'll see. Here's a detailed recap of what both end credits scenes are, and what they might mean.
1. The Vulture encounters a Scorpion
What happens: Following his Coney Island showdown with Spider-Man, Adrian Toomes – a.k.a. the Vulture – is arrested and sent to jail. The first end credits scene picks up with Toomes in prison, where he runs into a familiar face.
"Look who it is," says Mac Gargan (played by Better Call Saul's Michael Mando).
(For viewers who are bad with faces: Mac was previously seen in the Staten Island Ferry scene as one of the arms dealers working with Vulture. You can see him at right in the black leather jacket in the picture above.)
Mac is angry about "our little Spider friend" who put them both in prison, and says he has other "friends" thirsty for revenge. "I heard a rumor you know who he is," he says to Toomes.
Toomes denies knowing Spidey's civilian identity (which is a lie), but Mac looks skeptical.
Before much else can happen, though, a prison guard tells Toomes that his family has arrived for a visit, and Toomes walks away.
What it means: For starters, it sure looks like we'll see Mac return as the classic Spidey supervillain known as the Scorpion. In case the hint's too subtle, Mac has a large and very visible scorpion tattoo on his neck in that prison scene.
What's really intriguing, though, is that this scene paves the way for Vulture and Scorpion to start working together against Spidey – perhaps with a bit of help from their other friends. Which means this scene could be laying the groundwork for the Sinister Six, a gang of supervillains who regularly torment Spidey in the comics.
Sony has been trying to get a Sinister Six movie off the ground for years without much luck – both the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb Spider-Man series sputtered out before they could get there. But with Spidey now part of the MCU, they've got a chance to make it happen again.
Still unclear is how Sony and Marvel will sort out the rights to the Sinister Six characters. Some of the baddies traditionally associated with the Sinister Six, like Venom, are currently slated to become part of Sony's Marvel universe, which is not part of the MCU. At least for now.
... But now we're getting ahead of ourselves. The Homecoming credits doesn't confirm that the Sinister Six are coming, it just hints that they could. We'll have to wait and see if Sony and Marvel actually decide to go down that path.
2. Captain America gets the last laugh
What happens: After the very last credits go by, Captain America's face appears. It looks like another one of the educational videos we've seen playing in various classrooms throughout the movie.
Cap addresses the audience. "I'm here to talk about one of the most important qualities a student or soldier can have: patience." He rambles on about how great it is when patience is richly rewarded, but then concludes by acknowledging that sometimes it doesn't:
Sometimes it leads to very little, and you wonder why you waited so long for something so disappointing.
Ha, ha.
What it means: Marvel knows they've trained their fans to sit through allll the credits, and they occasionally enjoy having a laugh at your expense.
