MCU: Every Single Marvel Movie Post-Credits Scene (And What They Mean)

22. Captain America: The Winter Soldier: The Twins

The Scene

Bucky might not be under HYDRA's control any more after the climactic final battle, but they've got new weapons to play with.

In the mid-credits scene, we meet HYDRA's Wolfgang Von Strucker (played by Thomas Kretschmann) in a secret underground facility talking to Dr List (Henry Goodman) and talking about the fall of SHIELD. Von Strucker reveals a plan to feed The Avengers the locations of other HYDRA bases to throw them off the scent of their own work.

It is then revealed that they have Loki's sceptre in their possession, and that they've used it to experiment with empowerment on volunteers. Most died, but it is revealed that "the twins" survived - cue the reveal of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver).

What It Meant

A couple of things: first that the twins would be villains in the next film, despite it being about Ultron, and also that HYDRA still exists even with the corrupt SHIELD taken down. This scene also confirmed how Marvel would get around the rights limitations of using mutants - reclassifying them as "miracles" who were the product of science.

This was also the first hint that Loki's sceptre included an Infinity Stone, which would obviously come into play in the Avengers sequel.

And as an added kicker, Von Strucker suggesting that they could feed the Avengers information suggests that they still had double agents working close to the team. So far, that has remained unexplored.