The latest entry in the MCU has just arrived – and the ending could have major repercussions for the future of the franchise.

By Patrick Cremona

Published: Friday, 10 November 2023 at 00:01 AM

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*WARNING: CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE MARVELS*

For a number of reasons, The Marvels hasn’t opened in ideal circumstances – against the backdrop of low box office tracking, reports of long-term issues in the MCU project and the cast being unavailable for promotion due to the now-resolved SAG-AFTRA strike.

But the film is now arriving in cinemas – receiving some rather polarising reviews – and whatever you think of the movie as a whole, there is no doubt that one or two developments will have major repercussions for the franchise’s future.

The film centres on Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Kamala Khan/Ms Marvel (Iman Vellani) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) after they find that every time one of them uses their powers, they instantly swap places.

Eventually, they work out that this has something to do with Kree warrior Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who has an identical ‘Quantum Band’ bangle to Kamala and harbours a major grudge against Carol.

You see, Captain Marvel is referred to as the Annihilator on Dar-Benn’s home planet of Hala, which is in the midst of an ugly civil war that started when she destroyed the Kree Supreme Intelligence – and Dar-Benn is now desperately stealing natural resources from other planets.

After some planet-hopping, which takes the heroic trio to some very surreal places, they eventually face off with Dar-Benn once and for all – read on for a full explanation of what happens.

The Marvels ending explained: what happens to Monica Rambeau?

After Nick Fury, Kamala’s family and the various SABER workers are safely transported back to Earth via the unconventional transport method of being swallowed by Flerken, a battle between Dar-Benn and The Marvels ensures.

Dar-Benn manages to get her hands on both Quantum Bands, and tries to use these to drain the Earth’s sun of light so she can use it to save Hala – even though the heroes reiterate that Captain Marvel has enough power to relight Hala’s sun on her own.

Sadly for Dar-Benn, her attempt to use the Quantum Bands causes such a mammoth explosion that she instantly dies – and even manages to rip a hole in space-time, causing an incursion.

Obviously, the heroes now have to stop the incursion, so Captain Marvel and Ms Marvel use their powers to ensure that Monica is able to fly out and fix it.

Yet, although she is successful, she ends up trapped on the other side of the incursion – and is now seemingly stuck in an alternate universe.

Kamala and Carol are obviously devastated by this, but they eventually return to Earth – after Captain Marvel has first restored Hala’s sun – and get back to superhero business, which for Kamala means hunting down some new allies in her age group, starting with Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld).

But if you thought that was it for Monica, think again. In a mid-credits scene, she wakes up in a hospital and appears to be reunited with her mother Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch).

Only, something’s not right – and soon someone else walks into the room… it’s Hank McCoy/Beast! That’s right, Kelsey Grammer is back to reprise his role from the X-Men films, and in his conversation with Maria, he mentions Charles Xavier.

And if that wasn’t enough of a bombshell, Maria then looks very confused when Monica refers to her as mum. In other words, she has no idea who Monica is – and this is a completely new, alternate universe…

This definitely won’t be the last we see of Monica!