The Marvels may have divided critics but it is undeniably fun, and that extends all the way to its mid-credits scene, which has the potential to set the MCU in an entirely new direction.
***Extreme spoilers for The Marvels mid-credits scene below**
Finding herself in an alternate universe after the events of the film, Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) wakes up sitting in a hospital room with her “mother” at her side. Overjoyed to see the woman who died years before, she quickly realizes things are not as they seem.
Waking up, she sees that this version of Maria (Lashana Lynch) is not her mother. She doesn’t know who she is but a doctor has also come to help her now that she’s come to. The doctor? Well, a familiar face that fans of the mutants know well: Hank McCoy! Beast, who first appeared in the live-action in X-Men: The Last Stand by Kelsey Grammer and was brought to life again in the younger form by Nicholas Hoult in movies like X-Men: First Class.
We only get a brief moment with Hank and he’s not in the movie beyond this scene. Nonetheless, it is still exciting to see Beast back in live-action, especially with Kelsey Grammer taking on the role once more. Whether this is just a fanfare moment or something deeper, we don’t know yet, especially since we still don’t know much about the inclusion of the X-Men in the main MCU timeline. Although seeing as Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) was revealed to be a mutant at the end of Ms. Marvel season 1—a departure from the comics—it sure seems like they’re setting the stage for something big.
Now, Beast made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in a completely different universe from our main timeline, much like Charles Xavier’s introduction back in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
This is a very specific version of Beast.
The version of Beast that shows up here is not the version we saw in X-Men: The Last Stand or, by extension, the Nicholas Hoult performances. If anything, this is a direct callout to X-Men: The Animated Series. This version of Hank and his design is more connected with the cartoon than any of the other live-action takes we’ve seen before. Which is interesting since the take on Charles we saw Sir Patrick Stewart play in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness does seem to be the version from the animated series as well. What that means, we don’t know. But let’s unpack a bit more about who Beast is.
A professor at The Xavier Institute, Dr. Hank McCoy started (in the X-Men movies) as a humanoid man whose mutation affected his feet mainly. Hating it, he worked on himself and used Mystique’s blood to try and fix it only for it to result in turning himself into the Beast as we’ve come to know him. In the comics, an experimental formula gave Beast his fur and turned him the blue color we see.
This version of Hank in The Marvels, though, with the pointy ears, glasses, and lab coat is definitely a call back to The Animated Series and will make all the hearts of the kids who watched the show in the 90s soar.
(featured image: Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios)
