Spoiler warning: This article reveals the ending, character outcomes and post-credits scene of Captain America: Brave New World.
Short answer: The film has one post-credits scene and no mid-credits scene. After the full credits, Sam Wilson visits Samuel Sterns at the Raft. Sterns warns that Sam may eventually have to protect his world from the others—a deliberately broad reference to the multiverse. The scene points toward the MCU’s announced Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, but it does not confirm Doctor Doom, the X-Men, Wolverine, an incursion or any particular alternate universe.
Captain America: Brave New World, released in the United States on February 14, 2025, ends by completing Sam Wilson’s transition into Captain America while opening three larger storylines: Sam’s attempt to rebuild the Avengers, the MCU’s new adamantium arms race and a possible multiversal conflict. Marvel’s official film page places the movie within the MCU’s Phase 5, so its ending is best understood as a bridge toward Phase 6 rather than as a Phase 6 event itself.
How does Captain America: Brave New World end?
The conspiracy is ultimately revealed to have been engineered by Samuel Sterns, the scientist from The Incredible Hulk who has become the Leader. Bruce Banner’s blood left Sterns with extraordinary intelligence, and President Thaddeus Ross secretly kept him imprisoned at Camp Echo while using his scientific abilities.
Ross promised Sterns freedom in exchange for helping him become president, but he broke that promise. Sterns retaliated by manipulating soldiers and pilots, sabotaging the international agreement over adamantium and framing the United States for stealing the resource from Japan. His objective was to provoke a military confrontation that would damage Ross politically and destabilize the world.
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The plan is personal as well as geopolitical. Ross exploited the altered Sterns but continued to treat him as a prisoner and test subject. Sterns therefore decides that Ross should be transformed into a monster too. Marvel’s Samuel Sterns character profile provides the connection between the scientist in The Incredible Hulk and the Leader seen here.
Why does President Ross become Red Hulk?
Ross has a serious heart condition and takes pills created by Sterns. Sterns secretly increases the pills’ gamma content, gradually turning Ross into the Red Hulk.
That makes Ross’ transformation an act of revenge rather than an accidental side effect or a separate military experiment. Sterns takes the man who used his intelligence and imprisonment to create a dangerous altered human and gives him a gamma-powered condition of his own. The movie’s explanation of the gamma pills and Ross’ transformation is also discussed in GamesRadar+’s ending breakdown.
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Sterns exposes Ross’ connection to the conspiracy during Ross’ White House press event. The pressure, public humiliation and revelation trigger Ross’ transformation into Red Hulk. He attacks the White House and fights Sam.
Sam is physically outmatched. Unlike Steve Rogers, Sam is not a super-soldier, and he cannot win by trading punches with a gamma-powered Hulk. He relies on his flight equipment, tactical judgment and knowledge of Ross’ character to survive the fight. The battle moves to the cherry-blossom area, where Sam realizes that defeating Ross does not have to mean killing him.
Sam reaches Ross emotionally by reminding him that he can still show Betty Ross that he is trying to change. That appeal breaks through Ross’ rage, and Ross returns to human form. The important point is that Sam wins through restraint and empathy, not superior strength. The ending presents this as the clearest proof that Sam understands what Captain America is supposed to be: someone who refuses to give up on people even when they have done serious harm.
What happens to the main characters?
| Character | Ending |
|---|---|
| Sam Wilson | Sam survives the Red Hulk fight, protects Ross rather than killing him and decides to rebuild the Avengers outside direct government control. |
| Thaddeus Ross | Ross survives, resigns the presidency and is imprisoned at the Raft. Betty visits him. The film does not definitively say whether his heart condition has been cured. |
| Samuel Sterns | Sterns turns himself in and is held at the Raft. He remains dangerous because of his intelligence, manipulation and knowledge of possible future outcomes. |
| Joaquin Torres | Joaquin is critically injured while helping stop the brainwashed pilots, but he survives and recovers in hospital. Sam tells him to keep his Falcon suit ready. |
| Isaiah Bradley | Isaiah is cleared of the attempted assassination after Sam discovers that he was being controlled. He is released and publicly exonerated. |
| Betty Ross | Betty returns to the story and visits her father at the Raft, giving Ross’ ending a limited but meaningful opportunity for reconciliation. |
| Bucky Barnes | Bucky’s cameo connects Sam’s new role to the wider group of established MCU heroes. It does not confirm the final lineup of Sam’s Avengers team. |
Is Ross cured?
Not explicitly. The movie shows Ross alive and functional after changing back from Red Hulk, but it does not provide a detailed medical explanation of what the gamma treatment did to his underlying heart condition. It is therefore safer to say that Ross survives and appears stable, not that Sterns permanently cured him.
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What happens to Isaiah Bradley?
Isaiah’s resolution completes the film’s most direct political storyline. A Black super-soldier who had already been abused and discarded by the government is framed for an attempted assassination while under Sterns’ control. Once Sam uncovers the manipulation, Isaiah is cleared and publicly exonerated instead of being left as the official scapegoat.
Does Joaquin Torres survive?
Yes. Joaquin is badly injured during the effort to stop the controlled pilots from attacking Japanese ships, but he is alive in hospital by the end. Sam’s instruction to keep the Falcon suit ready is significant: Joaquin is the first clearly identified person connected to Sam’s plan to rebuild the Avengers.
How many post-credits scenes does the film have?
Captain America: Brave New World has one post-credits scene and no mid-credits scene. The scene appears only after the entire credit sequence, so viewers who leave after the opening portion of the credits will miss it. The scene’s placement and content are reported by TheWrap and the Los Angeles Times.
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What happens in the post-credits scene?
- Sam visits the Raft. Sterns is imprisoned there, alongside Ross, but Sam is visiting rather than being held as a prisoner.
- Sam reminds Sterns that his prediction failed. Sterns had calculated that Red Hulk would kill Captain America. Sam survived and defeated the immediate threat.
- Sterns shifts from the past to the future. He talks about possible outcomes and probabilities rather than presenting himself as someone with unlimited, literal knowledge of the future.
- He challenges Sam’s assumption that his world is unique. Sterns warns that the heroes may have to defend their world against people or forces from other worlds.
- The scene ends without identifying the threat. There is no appearance by Doctor Doom, the X-Men, Wolverine, an alternate Captain America, another Avengers team or a Fantastic Four member.
“Do you think this is the only world? We’ll see what happens when you have to protect this place from the others.”
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What does Sterns mean by “the others”?
The most direct interpretation is that Sterns means beings, heroes or villains from alternate universes. The MCU had already established parallel realities in Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Marvels and Deadpool & Wolverine. The scene is not introducing the multiverse for the first time.
Its more important function is character-based. Sam has spent the film dealing with a conspiracy involving presidents, military power, international treaties and government manipulation. Sterns forces him to consider a threat larger than any single nation or Earth. Sam’s next responsibility may be protecting his entire world from a conflict that crosses universes.
| Reading | Status |
|---|---|
| “The others” refers to alternate realities or inhabitants of them. | Strongly implied. Sterns explicitly challenges Sam’s belief that this is the only world. |
| The warning is intended to connect with the MCU’s next multiverse-focused Avengers stories. | Strong inference. It fits the announced direction of Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. |
| The others are the X-Men. | Unconfirmed. The scene never names them. |
| The others are Doctor Doom and his forces. | Unconfirmed. Doctor Doom does not appear or receive a name-check. |
| An incursion has already begun. | Unconfirmed. Sterns speaks about possible outcomes, not a demonstrated incursion. |
| Sterns will appear in Doomsday or Secret Wars. | Unconfirmed. The stinger does not announce his future role. |
Sterns also should not be described as omniscient. The film portrays him as calculating probabilities and possible outcomes. He may be extrapolating from information available to him, using his extraordinary intelligence or drawing on knowledge of the multiverse, but the scene does not establish unrestricted future sight.
Does the scene confirm Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars?
It appears designed to point in that direction, but it does not confirm a specific plot. As of August 10, 2026, Marvel officially lists Avengers: Doomsday for December 18, 2026 and Avengers: Secret Wars for December 17, 2027. Doomsday remains unreleased on that date, so the MCU has not yet supplied an on-screen explanation for Sterns’ warning.
The distinction matters:
- Confirmed: Marvel has announced and scheduled the two multiverse-oriented Avengers films, and Sterns warns about other worlds.
- Strongly implied: The warning is a structural bridge from Sam’s grounded Captain America story to the wider multiverse saga.
- Not confirmed: The identity of the villain, the exact alternate universes involved, the existence of an incursion, or the comic-book Battleworld storyline.
How does the film set up Phase 6?
1. Sam is becoming an Avengers leader
Ross initially asks Sam to lead a government-supervised Avengers team. Sam rejects the idea that the government should control the team, but he does not reject the need for the Avengers themselves. By the end, he decides to rebuild the group independently.
This is the film’s clearest continuation point. Sam is no longer simply filling Steve Rogers’ symbolic position; he is accepting the organizational responsibility traditionally associated with Captain America. Director Julius Onah described the movie’s central mandate as cementing Sam as the new Captain America, a role that naturally connects him to the future of the Avengers. Onah’s comments to TheWrap explain why that leadership thread was important.
At this stage, however, Sam has announced an intention, not assembled a confirmed roster. Joaquin is the one clearly identified recruit. Bucky’s appearance suggests that established allies remain part of Sam’s wider circle, but the film does not provide a complete team list.
2. Thunderbolts creates a rival Avengers claim
Later MCU continuity makes Sam’s plan more complicated. In Thunderbolts, the antihero group is publicly rebranded as The New Avengers. Its end-credits material establishes that Sam is suing the group over the Avengers name.
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That development changes the meaning of Brave New World’s final announcement. The ending is not a simple promise that Sam will form a team and everyone else will join him. Instead, it establishes a dispute over who has the right to represent the Avengers publicly: Sam’s independent team or Valentina Allegra de Fontaine’s government-connected replacement.
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The official Marvel page for Thunderbolts identifies the film, while Time’s breakdown of its credits scenes covers the New Avengers name dispute. This is an important update that was not available to many immediate post-release explainers about Brave New World.
3. Adamantium becomes a new strategic resource
The movie establishes that adamantium can be mined from the remains of Tiamut, the Celestial whose emergence was stopped in Eternals. Those remains are referred to as Celestial Island. The discovery creates an international race to control a resource with enormous military and technological value.
President Ross attempts to create a treaty governing its distribution. Sterns’ conspiracy sabotages the diplomatic process and makes it appear that the United States has stolen adamantium from Japan, nearly provoking open conflict. The treaty survives the conspiracy, leaving the MCU with a new strategic material and a new geopolitical fault line.
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That is more consequential than the stolen sample by itself. Adamantium changes the balance between nations and resources associated with major MCU powers, including America’s military, Japan, Wakanda’s vibranium and Talokan’s resources. The film does not show all of those consequences, so this should be treated as world-building potential rather than a guaranteed Phase 6 plot.
The film’s connection between Tiamut and adamantium is discussed in Rotten Tomatoes’ analysis of the MCU’s future.
4. Does adamantium set up Wolverine or the X-Men?
It makes future mutant-related stories easier to construct, but it does not confirm one.
In Marvel Comics, adamantium is strongly associated with Wolverine’s skeleton and claws. By giving the MCU a canonical source for the material, Brave New World creates a possible route to a future Weapon X program, Wolverine story or broader mutant storyline. Marvel’s adamantium reference reflects the material’s established Marvel significance.
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- It does not confirm that Wolverine is already present on Earth-616.
- It does not reveal that an MCU Weapon X program has begun.
- It does not confirm a new X-Men project connected to Celestial Island.
- It does not say that the next Wolverine will receive an adamantium skeleton through this particular storyline.
The defensible conclusion is that adamantium gives Marvel a new canonical route to future Wolverine or mutant-related stories. It is a bridge, not a confirmed Wolverine origin.
5. Sterns points Sam toward a multiverse war
Sterns’ warning is the movie’s most obvious connection to Phase 6. It changes Sam’s scale of responsibility from protecting people within one political system to potentially defending his world from other worlds.
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That does not mean the scene functions as a full preview of Doomsday. The multiverse had already been established elsewhere in the MCU, and Sterns does not provide new information about its mechanics. The scene’s more useful purpose is to motivate Sam’s next step: he needs a team capable of responding to a threat that no single Captain America can handle.
How later MCU releases change the interpretation
Older explanations written shortly after the February 2025 release could only describe Sam’s intention to build a team. The later release of Thunderbolts adds an immediate obstacle: another group has already taken the public name of the Avengers.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps was released on July 25, 2025. Marvel’s official page identifies Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm as the central team in that film’s retro-futuristic setting.
More significantly for the multiverse question, the Thunderbolts post-credits scene shows an extra-dimensional ship carrying the Fantastic Four logo approaching Earth. That scene makes the MCU’s cross-universe direction more concrete than Sterns’ intentionally vague warning. It still does not retroactively prove that Sterns was specifically referring to the Fantastic Four, however. His scene does not name them, and the timeline between the two events has not been supplied.
Why does the post-credits scene feel so vague?
The scene reiterates a concept that MCU audiences already understand: other realities exist. It does not reveal a new villain, show a portal, identify a team or explain the rules of an upcoming multiverse conflict.
There is also a production reason for its general wording. Onah said there was always an intention to include a single stinger, but the scene was filmed during additional photography after the writers’ strike and kept deliberately vague while Marvel’s future roadmap was still changing. That context helps explain why the scene gestures toward a direction without locking itself to a named character or event. See TheWrap’s interview with Onah for that production explanation.
In story terms, the vagueness is useful too. Sterns is still manipulating Sam. He may be offering a genuine warning, trying to frighten him, or doing both. The scene leaves open whether Sterns has personally encountered alternate-world beings or has simply calculated that the multiverse will eventually become a threat.
What the ending means for Sam Wilson
Sam’s victory over Red Hulk is the emotional conclusion, while the Avengers announcement is the practical conclusion.
He does not become Captain America by matching Steve Rogers physically. He becomes Captain America by choosing to save Ross when it would be easier to treat him as an irredeemable enemy. Sam’s willingness to appeal to Ross’ relationship with Betty turns the final battle into a test of judgment and compassion.
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Confirmed versus speculation
The most reliable way to read the ending is to separate what the film shows from what it invites audiences to predict.
- Confirmed in the film: Samuel Sterns engineered the conspiracy; Ross became Red Hulk because of the altered gamma pills; Ross survives and is imprisoned; Isaiah is exonerated; Joaquin survives; Sam plans to rebuild the Avengers; adamantium comes from Celestial Island; Sterns warns Sam about other worlds.
- Strongly implied: Sam’s Avengers storyline will connect to the larger multiverse saga; the “others” are likely inhabitants or forces from alternate realities; adamantium may become important to future mutant-related stories.
- Still speculation: the identity of the others, Doctor Doom’s involvement, the X-Men’s involvement, Wolverine’s origin, an incursion, Battleworld and Sterns’ appearance in either upcoming Avengers film.
Final verdict
Captain America: Brave New World does not end with a detailed Phase 6 reveal. Instead, it performs three more limited but important jobs. First, it completes Sam Wilson’s personal transformation into a Captain America who leads through empathy rather than power. Second, it gives him a reason to rebuild the Avengers independently, a plan later complicated by the rival New Avengers. Third, it introduces adamantium and uses Sterns’ warning to point from a grounded political thriller toward the MCU’s multiverse-focused future.
So, yes: the post-credits scene is connected to the direction of Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. But no: it does not tell viewers who the others are. Until Marvel identifies that threat on screen, Doctor Doom, Wolverine, the X-Men, alternate Avengers and Battleworld remain possibilities—not confirmed answers.
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Does Captain America: Brave New World have a mid-credits scene?
No. It has one scene after the entire credit sequence and no separate mid-credits scene.
Is President Ross dead or cured at the end?
Ross survives, returns to human form, resigns as president and is imprisoned at the Raft. The movie does not definitively say that his underlying heart condition has been cured.
Are Samuel Sterns’ “others” definitely the X-Men or Doctor Doom?
No. The scene strongly suggests alternate-universe beings or forces, but it names neither the X-Men nor Doctor Doom and confirms no specific group.
Will Samuel Sterns appear in Avengers: Doomsday?
The post-credits scene leaves Sterns available for a future story, but it does not confirm his appearance in Doomsday or Secret Wars.
Is Sam’s Avengers team government-controlled?
No. Ross proposes a government-supervised team, but Sam rejects that arrangement and says he will rebuild the Avengers independently. Later, Thunderbolts complicates the plan by introducing a rival team using the New Avengers name.
Does the adamantium reveal confirm Wolverine’s MCU origin?
No. It gives Marvel a canonical source for adamantium and makes future Wolverine or mutant-related stories easier to establish, but no Weapon X or Wolverine storyline is confirmed by this film.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: Sam defeats Red Hulk by reaching Ross rather than killing him, Sterns remains imprisoned but dangerous, and Sam begins planning an independent Avengers team. The lone post-credits scene is a broad multiverse warning: it points toward the MCU’s Phase 6 without identifying the enemy.
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