Despite being one of the most successful film franchises in cinema history, Marvel has released some movies that many fans felt could have had much better endings.
Considering the number of films the comic book giant has released over the years, chances were that it would miss the mark at some point. But this hasn’t stopped fans from wondering what could have been with these seven films.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
After Scott and Hope succeed in defeating Kang the Conqueror, it seems like they are both trapped in the Quantum Realm until Cassie quickly generates another portal for them. Quantumania‘s happy ending feels way too easy and robs the film of what could have been a more impactful conclusion.
He and Hope remaining in this other dimension to stop Kang would have made for an ending akin to No Way Home’s, in which Peter is forced to have Doctor Strange erase everyone’s memory of him to protect his universe.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
At the end of Sam Raimi’s multiversal film, Doctor Strange defeats the Scarlet Witch and saves America Chavez’s life by using the Darkhold’s forbidden magic. Though it seems like a happy ending, the main story concludes with a frightening shot of Strange painfully gaining a third eye for using the Darkhold.
Ending things there would have made for a shocking cliffhanger that would leave audiences wondering what would become of him after being corrupted by the Darkhold. However, this is undercut by the midcredits scene with him and Clea that shows him living with the third eye as if nothing is wrong with him.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ends with Peter battling Harry Osborn, only for his true love Gwen Stacy to die during the battle. The film jumps to a funeral before skipping to five months later, when Harry starts assembling the Sinister Six, all while Peter has apparently given up on being Spider-Man. When Rhino starts wreaking havoc on the city, Peter decides to fight crime again, and the film ends on a cliffhanger with Spider-Man battling Rhino. The ending only hurts more since Sony canceled the sequel.
Using No Way Home‘s ending as an example, Gwen should have died at the end of the film’s second act. And instead of having Peter rush back to battle another supervillain, the film should have focused on him grieving and processing his feelings before deciding to continue fighting as Spider-Man, with one final swing through the city. The film could have also used a scene or two during the credits to set up the Sinister Six instead of mashing it all into the main story.
Morbius
One of the most hated aspects of this widely reviled film is its post-credits scene, which shows Michael Keaton’s Vulture appearing in Morbius’ universe from the interdimensional crack created in Spider-Man: No Way Home. After he is released from captivity for having no records of being arrested in that reality, he meets up with Morbius in a high-tech flight suit and decides to team up with him.
There are so many glaring questions left by this ending. Why did Toomes go to the other universe? What made him think he was there because of Spider-Man? How did he make another Vulture suit from scratch without Chitauri technology? Why does he choose to team up with Morbius, of all people? It would have made more narrative sense for Morbius to team up with Venom instead. This whole conclusion is clearly another one of Sony’s half-baked attempts at setting up the Sinister Six and another indicator that the studio doesn’t know how to handle the Spider-Man franchise anymore.
Black Widow
This prequel film is supposed to feature Black Widow’s last appearance in the MCU following her death in Avengers: Endgame. After freeing the Widows from Dreykov’s control, she is given a Quinjet and is last seen flying off to break the imprisoned Avengers from captivity. While this signals Natasha figuratively departing the franchise, it feels somewhat lacking in emotion, given this is her final scene in the entire MCU.
Marvel Studios actually made an alternate ending in which Natasha returns to her childhood home and comes across a group of kids playing as the Avengers. She then acknowledges a little girl pretending to be her, and they both pretend to fire the former’s iconic Widow’s Bite before cutting to black. This would have made for a much more heartfelt ending and a better sendoff for her character, as it acknowledges how she has inspired countless women in the real world and paved the way for more heroes like her to appear in superhero media.
Eternals
While the Deviants were initially set up to be the main villains of this film, Eternals did a 180 by making Ikaris and his Celestial master, Arishem, the antagonists. This twist does work, but at the cost of nearly disregarding the Deviants completely. The Deviants and their underdeveloped leader, Kro, seem like an afterthought by the time the final battle begins. Kro is shoehorned into the third act, only to be quickly killed by Thena in an effort to tie up loose ends.
The Deviants deserved much better treatment in this film and should have been more than just a batch of CGI obstacles for the heroes to face. It would have been more interesting to see Kro team up with the Eternals he hates so much to stop the emergence of Tiamut and save the planet. Plus, what makes him think he could kill all the Eternals and stop a Celestial Emergence all by himself?
Dark Phoenix
This film was never meant to be the end of the X-Men franchise, but since Disney had bought 20th Century Fox during the film’s production, any planned sequels it had set up were wiped off the map. Despite there being reshoots to change Dark Phoenix‘s original ending, which was very similar to Captain Marvel‘s, it did nothing to establish this movie as a firm conclusion to everything that came before it.
Since the adult Jean is back on Earth at the end of Days of Future Past, it would have made for a complete ending for the franchise by having Jean remain with the X-Men, or at the very least have her promise to return to them one day. Also, in hindsight, it would have been better if the school was renamed after Raven instead of Jean, as it would’ve made for a much more fitting tribute to the former character, who had been a hero to many mutants long before Jean.
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