Doctor Strange’s post-credits scenes [spoilers], explained

Spoilers ahead: Doctor Strange has post-credits scenes. They’re discussed below.

The credits of Doctor Strange include two extra scenes — one in the middle of the credits, and one at the end.

Mid- and post-credits scenes have become a Marvel tradition, something fans look forward to every time the company releases a new film. Sometimes they contain huge reveals that hint at future movies (see: Black Panther at the end of Captain America: Civil War). Other times they serve as little love letters from Marvel to its fans and call back to the company's history (see: Howard the Duck at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy). They're fun. They can be exciting. And if we're lucky, they give us something to chew on until the next Marvel movie.

Here's what happens in Doctor Strange’s mid- and post-credits scenes.

Doctor Strange sets up Thor: Ragnarok

The mid-credits scene opens with the voice of Marvel’s mighty god of thunder, Thor (Chris Hemsworth). We haven’t seen Thor since he disappeared at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, to deal with the weird, Infinity Stone–laced dream he had. Now he’s back, and he’s talking to Doctor Strange about his reemergence on Earth.

Thor tells Strange, who is now entrusted to safeguard Earth from all kinds of dimensional threats, that he’s come to Earth to find his father, Odin — no one knows what’s happened to Odin since Loki shape-shifted and took his place at the end of Thor: The Dark World and that whole entire complicated story happened where Loki faked his death. But yes, apparently Thor believes he’ll find his father on Earth.

“Allow me to help you,” Strange says, teasing that he’ll be making an appearance in the next Thor movie, Thor: Ragnarok, which is due out on November 3, 2017.

The next Doctor Strange villain is introduced

In Doctor Strange, we meet a new character named Jonathan Pangborn (played by Benjamin Bratt). Pangborn, like Strange, has learned the ways of mysticism, and uses magic to make himself walk after being paralyzed in a car accident.

The post-credits scene begins with a shot of Pangborn in a workshop, where he’s confronted by Chiwetel Ejiofor‘s Mordo. Mordo, at the end of Doctor Strange, is disenchanted by the idea of magic and sorcerers, and during his visit with Pangborn, he seems anxious. He tells Pangborn he has come to the conclusion that sorcerers, like Pangborn, steal magic and power that belong to them. And Mordo then takes Pangborn’s magic, leaving him paralyzed.

The problem, Mordo says, is that there are “too many sorcerers” in this world — and thus he seeks to eliminate them. This goal aligns the character’s MCU arc with his story in the comic books as a villain and antagonist in Doctor Strange’s adventure.

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