The Marvels arrived in theaters on November 10, 2023, and featured a few major cameos, as Marvel Cinematic Universe films are wont to do. This film is actually a bit light on cameos compared to other Marvel films, but all of them are very purposeful and have big connotations for the franchise’s future.
Spoilers for The Marvels ahead!
The Marvels didn’t need too many cameos as it already sees the crossover of several major heroes and characters in the MCU. In the film, Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) are forced to team up when their powers become entangled. While Captain Marvel knew Monica when she was a little girl, this was their first time crossing paths as adults and meeting Ms. Marvel. Meanwhile, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) also returns to guide the team, as well as Ms. Marvel’s family.
With The Marvels kind of being a mashup of Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, WandaVision, and Secret Invasion, there’s plenty going on without a bunch of other heroes or celebrities popping up—so most of the cameos come at the tail-end of the movie. However, all of them have the potential to change the MCU drastically. There have been some complaints about The Marvels being a little too lighthearted and funny, but it proves its necessity to the franchise with these brilliant cameos.
Valkyrie
Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie is the first major cameo in The Marvels. She makes her entrance during one of the more emotional moments in the film, after Captain Marvel, Rambeau, and Ms. Marvel fail to save the Skrull colony on Tarnax from Dar-Benn’s (Zawe Ashton) wrath. However, they manage to save several Skrull refugees, hence Captain Marvel calls in Valkyrie to find another home for the remaining Skrulls. After all, Valkyrie has experience with helping displaced people as she became the leader of New Asgard after the Asgardians’ original home was destroyed.
Valkyrie doesn’t say where she’s taking the Skrulls, but New Asgard seems likely. It’s interesting to think of New Asgard holding inhabitants from all across the galaxy. Even more interesting is the dynamic between Captain Marvel and Valkyrie. It seems they’ve been communicating off-screen, with Valkyrie visiting Captain Marvel in space through the Bifrost. When Valkyrie comforts Captain Marvel and kisses her on the cheek, we get the feeling that they might be more than friends. With Marvel never fully committing to LGBTQ+ representation, it’s difficult to tell if anything will come of it, but it’s still interesting.
Kate Bishop
Right before The Marvels ends, Hailee Steinfeld appears as Kate Bishop, reprising her role for the first time since Hawkeye. She’s seen arriving home in the evening and being greeted by Lucky the Pizza Dog. However, someone is lurking in the shadows. It’s Ms. Marvel! It turns out she swiped Fury’s “intel” tablet and has been looking up “kid” heroes. Even though Bishop clarifies that she’s 23, those are just minor details to Ms. Marvel. She’s assembling a team of young heroes and wants Bishop to be a part of it. Based on Bishop’s smile, Ms. Marvel may just be on to something.
Now, we’ve had a feeling the MCU was building up the Young Avengers for a while with the intros of Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop, Kid Loki (Jack Veal), America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), and Billy (Julian Hilliard) and Tommy (Jett Klyne). However, we didn’t expect it to actually start becoming a reality in The Marvels. Also, Ms. Marvel being their leader and channeling Fury in forming the team is just perfection. This is the first film to confirm outright that Young Avengers is on the horizon.
Binary
The Marvels manages to top Bishop’s last-minute appearance with the cameos in its mid-credits scene. The first familiar face to show up in the mid-credit scene is Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau. However, the scene takes place in an alternate reality where Rambeau is the hero known as Binary. In the comics, Binary was one of the aliases Carol Danvers went by. In this realm, it’s Rambeau taking on the mantle. Viewers don’t get to see her powers, but it appears she’s part of the X-Men, making Binary’s future in the MCU very exciting.
Beast
Shortly after Lynch’s cameo, Kelsey Grammer’s Beast shows up. He is the doctor evaluating Monica after she gets trapped in their reality. Grammer portrayed Beast in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men series. However, this is his first time reprising the role in almost a decade. His cameo was possible due to Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox and ownership of the X-Men and Deadpool. While there have been small teases of the X-Men transitioning to the MCU, we weren’t expecting something this major in The Marvels. Monica is in the X-Men universe from Fox’s original series! All of the X-Men from that series can return now that we have someone from the MCU stuck in that universe. With just a minute-long scene, the entire X-Men universe became a part of the MCU, and there are endless possibilities as to what the franchise can do with that universe and those characters.
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
