'Captain Marvel' post-credit scenes and Stan Lee cameo explained (SPOILERS)

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel doesn’t disappoint when it comes to post-credit scenes as there are two to stick around for.

The first occurs mid-credits and sees a still-bearded Steve Rogers, Black Widow, War Machine and Bruce Banner in the Avengers HQ checking the fatality numbers for the world after Thanos’ Snap – now known in the MCU as “The Decimation”.

They’re also in possession of Nick Fury’s pager from which he sent a message to Captain Marvel, just before turned to dust at the end of Infinity War. It looks like the remaining Avengers have been keeping an eye on it, but their concern grows when it suddenly switches off.

Their confusion soon turns to shock when Carol Danvers suddenly appears demanding to know where Nick Fury is. It then cuts to a message reminding us that Captain Marvel will return in Avengers: Endgame.

It should be noted though that this scene might not begin the next Avengers movie, as the Doctor Strange mid-credit scene with Thor ended up taking place midway through Thor: Ragnarok, as did the Ant-Man mid-credit tease for Civil War.

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The very end credit scene concerns Goose (the cat-looking Flerken) coughing up the Tesseract like a hairball onto Nick Fury’s desk. Fury has been tasked by Carol to look after the Tesseract on Earth though at this point nobody knows that it is the Space Stone.

Its appearance suggests that Mar-Vell used her position with PEGASUS and the government to get her hands on it. Howard Stark handed it over to S.H.I.E.L.D. for sake-keeping after retrieving it from Arctic waters at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger.

There is also a Stan Lee cameo that is far more meta than his previous appearances.

The late Marvel Comics co-creator, who passed away on 12 November 2018, made one of his final MCU outings in the Brie Larson-led superhero movie in a train sequence with Carol Danvers.

He can be seen reading a movie script and running lines when the hero checks to see if he is the Skrull she is looking for. They look at each other, she gives a knowing smile before moving on and he continues reading lines.

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The funny thing is, the script in his hand is for the 1995 Kevin Smith film Mallrats, which Stan had a cameo in as himself. However, he’s not reading one of his own lines so it could mean that the late Marvel icon wasn’t playing himself in Captain Marvel.

Kevin Feige confirmed that he is playing the same character who pops up all across the MCU in different jobs, but a fan theory goes further by suggesting that he is actually Uatu The Watcher.

Uatu is a member of an ancient alien race tasked with watching over Earth and keeping an eye on the heroes rising up.

Sadly we might not see Uatu after The New Mutants hits cinemas this August

Captain Marvel is in cinemas now.