Warning! This article contains spoilers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Thunderbolts* seemed to expose the ending for The Fantastic Four: First Steps in their mid-credits scene, but now I see that it was way more clever than that. The MCU has been building towards Avengers: Doomsday for some time, but it wasn’t until Thunderbolts* that we got a good glimpse at all the stories in the Multiverse Saga finally beginning to collide together.

Unlike the Infinity Saga, the latest era of Marvel movies has struggled to deliver a number of overlapping stories. Finally, with Thunderbolts*, a group of misfit heroes were brought together from several previous projects, and they formed a team of heroes, now known as The New Avengers.

But more than that, the film’s mid-credits scene connects the dots between The New Avengers, Sam Wilson’s Avengers, and The Fantastic Four in a surprising and delightful way. And despite seeming as though it was giving away major details for other projects, First Steps proved all my theories wrong, and I couldn’t be happier that it did.

Thunderbolts* Post-Credits Scene Seemed To Spoil The Fantastic Four: First Steps Ending

Thunderbolts* Sets Up Events That Involve The Fantastic Four In Earth-616

As mentioned above, Thunderbolts* connects to The Fantastic Four in their mid-credits scene, when the team detects a signal from a ship that has traveled from another reality into their own. As the team looks at a monitor, they see a large ship, similar to that seen in the trailers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, before zooming in on a large number four.

With the trailers and descriptions circulating about the film, it seemed clear that Galactus was coming to destroy the home planet of Reed Richards, Johnny and Sue Storm, and Ben Grimm. With that in mind, and the fact that this ship, appearing slightly battered and bruised, appeared in the sky of Earth-616, it seemed clear that the team would abandon their home planet to escape Galactus.

Evidently, that’s not what happened, but it was a logical conclusion based on what was known about the movie. And it seemed as though something needed to force this hero team to Earth-616, and make them desperate enough that they would collide with other groups of heroes. Thankfully, I was proven wrong, as I’m sure is the case for many other theorists who speculated the same ending for First Steps.

The MCU Pulled Off An Incredible Misdirect Connecting To A Very Different Moment For The Fantastic Four

The Fantastic Four: First Steps Resolves Its Story In An Extremely Satisfying Way

Behind the scenes, both the mid-credits scene from Thunderbolts*, and the mid-credits scene from The Fantastic Four: First Steps were directed by the Russo brothers, the visionary director duo that is working on Avengers: Doomsday right now. And it appears that both scenes are small samples of what we can expect to see in full during that movie.

While it seemed as though The Fantastic Four would be left with no choice but to leave their home behind, to fall to the endless hunger of Galactus, the reality is that the heroes succeeded in taking down that ominous threat, and continued to live in peace and happiness for several more years.

The mid-credits scene of The Fantastic Four: First Steps leaps ahead another four years, which means the team continue to thrive and refine their powers. Ultimately, this will make their story far more interesting in Avengers: Doomsday, with the heroes becoming increasingly more capable. And beyond that, it suggests that they may actually be brought to Earth-616 by Doctor Doom.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps True Ending Was So Much Better Than Thunderbolts* Made Me Believe It Would Be

The Fantastic Four Save The Day And Their Entire Planet

One thing that tends to be a constant in superhero movies is hope. Most of the time, the heroes win, with the rare exception of Avengers: Infinity War. And while a loss can create a contrast and set the stakes higher for the next chapter, having The Fantastic Four lose so traumatically as to have their entire planet consumed in their debut MCU outing would have been a hard pill to swallow.

But with this twist, it kept me guessing throughout the movie, wondering what would happen next, and how the heroes would overcome their rival in Galactus. They formed a plan, and a backup plan, and then a backup for the backup, with all of them failing. Then, when all hope seemed lost, the heroes dug deep, and they manage to barely win.

This was so much more satisfying, tense, and overall just a wonderful arc for the film. On top of that, it allowed the audience to see how much these heroes mean to the people of their planet, as they were able to rally the entire Earth together to support them in their efforts to take down Galactus.

And now, with the story jumping forward and teasing Doom’s presence, it feels as though the next chapter is all the more exciting, rather than being a tragic and devastating loss. The MCU handled this well, and while the mid-credits scenes seemed to tell one story in Thunderbolts*, I’m glad I was wrong, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps took these characters in a whole other direction instead.