Spider-Man: Brand New Day doesn’t have a traditional post-credits scene—you know, with human beings on screen and whatever—but it does have a little teaser that does seemingly set up the next time we’ll see Peter Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But for those not steeped in comics, you might be confused as to what this odd little animated moment might mean. That’s where we step in, people.
The Post-Credits Scene
After the credits, we see the usual text of “Spider-Man Will Return,” but with no indication of the title. We then see Ned’s Spidey Tracker app saying it has located Spider-Man. The app graphics show the city of New York, then pulls out to show the Earth, then the Spider-Man icon moves out into space. Eventually it settles over a blank area near the moon. “Spider-Man found,” it says over and over again.
What the Post-Credits Scene Means
Now, obviously this is speculation, but to us it seems fairly clear. The next movie in the MCU will be, of course, Avengers: Doomsday. If the movie hews close to the “Time Runs Out” storyline from Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers comics run, as we all expect, the culmination will see Dr. Doom avert the catastrophic incursion event threatening reality only for every timeline and parallel earth to reduce down to a single strand.
However, Doom will not merely be content with ruling this Earth. He will take remnants of other destroyed realities and create Battleworld, a planet near the moon. This will take place in Avengers: Secret Wars. Spider-Man plays a major role in the original Secret Wars comics from the ’80s, which famously first bestowed the black suit upon him. Since Sony surely wants to get Venom going in the main MCU/Tom Holland version of Spider-Man as quickly as possible, this is a pretty clear way to do it.
While we don’t know if Spider-Man will appear even as a cameo in Doomsday, I would be incredibly surprised if Holland isn’t one of the central characters of Secret Wars. Ergo, while the Spidey Tracker app isn’t literally capable of detecting Spider-Man in outer space, it lets us the audience know where next we’ll find him.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.