10 MCU End Scenes That Were Scrapped

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, getting to the end of a movie doesn't just mean that the current story is about to be wrapped up - it also means that future stories are about to be teased, sometimes years in advance.

This is the franchise that turned post-credits scenes from a rare occurrence into a blockbuster movie staple, and in almost every single one of its films, Marvel Studios uses its endings to set up dominoes that will be knocked down in upcoming projects, giving us hints about the direction that the MCU is heading in.

It takes a lot of work to get these teases right - they have to be exciting, but not too spoilery, while also feeling like a natural part of the movie they're attached to - and the filmmakers don't always strike gold on the first try, meaning that lots of interesting ideas are abandoned along the way.

Whether it's an alternate post-credits stinger, a completely different ending, or just a deleted scene from the very end of the movie, most MCU films have climactic scenes that were scrapped during production, just like these ones...

The MCU is full of unresolved plot threads and forgotten characters (poor Betty Ross), but one of the biggest mysteries that's still waiting to be addressed revolves around Mitchell Carson and the stolen Pym Particles.

During the third act of the original Ant-Man movie, Carson runs off with a vial of those particles after a fight breaks out between Ant-Man and some unnamed goons. Not only is this the last time we saw Carson, but it's also the last we heard of the particles he nicked, which is strange, because stolen Ant-Man technology seems like it should be a pretty huge problem for the Avengers to address.

Well, at one point in time, it was going to be addressed - and quite quickly, too.

According to director Peyton Reed, Ant-Man originally ended with Paul Rudd's bite-sized hero confronting Carson and retrieving the particles. However, this was scrapped, and Carson's fate was left up in the air - presumably to create more story possibilities.

It's frustrating that we still don't know what Carson is up to (it's been almost six years since Ant-Man) but on the plus side, the third film in the series is currently in the works, so maybe we're about to get some answers.