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How Marvel Killed The Post-Credits Scene
Oct 14, 2025
It's no secret that Post Credit scenes have been around for decades. Though The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become so synonymous with the Post Credit scene that audiences have become trained to wait after every movie they see. But this far into the MCU, has Marvel completely killed the allure of the Post Credit scene? Once used to tease new stories that are coming soon, it has now become mostly a gimmick. Has Marvel killed the Post Credit scene for good?
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0:00
Who the hell are you
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Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D. I'm here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative
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Remember this? Obviously, it changed the movie industry forever, but maybe not in the way you're thinking
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Today, the MCU is the most dominant form of filmmaking on the planet. And as such, this cute Easter egg idea of storing secret information after the end credits of a film has caught on
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And it's the perfect symbol for everything wrong with Hollywood today. But I think a bunch of guys like us should team up
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Could do some good. Intriguing. Sure, Iron Man is what everyone thinks of when they talk about post-credit scenes
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but it wasn't the first by a long shot. In fact, the very first time a film ever had a post-credit scene
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was the Dean Martin spy film The Silencers from 1966. The movie in question is an attempt to capitalize off the rampant popularity of the James Bond franchise
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Every Bond film ends with a post-credit message saying, James Bond will return
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So, not to be outdone by this, The Silencers features a post-credit sneak peek at the sequel, titled Murderer's Row
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However, this film might as well be lost to the sands of time by today's standards
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There were many other films that featured post-credit scenes over the ensuing 40 years
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Masters of the Universe, Airplane, The Muppet Movie, to name a few. But it would be Ferris Bueller's day off that would cement the idea into the public consciousness
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You're still here? It's over. The scene is as iconic today as when it was first released, so much so that Deadpool even
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parodied it. Oh, you're expecting a teaser for Deadpool 2. Well, we don't have that kind of money
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Despite being the secret weapon of the film industry, the post-credits sequence wouldn't
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fully catch on until it was embraced by the first wave of Marvel films
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In fact, all of the press and preview screenings of 2008's Iron Man did not feature the now
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infamous post-credits scene that linked Tony Stark to a wider world of superheroes
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From there the MCU would use the post sequence as a way to build hype for their upcoming projects Thanos was introduced in the post scene of the first Avengers movie and the stakes were raised when he donned the Infinity Gauntlet at the end of Age of Ultron
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As the first three phases of the MCU marched toward the finale of Infinity War and Endgame
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the post-credits scenes worked more or less in concert with one another
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to layer the key pieces of narrative real estate. They built anticipation about the ultimate showdown between the Avengers and Thanos
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with the fate of the universe at hand. There was a storyline building through all the films and a figurehead that was easily identifiable for both the casual fan and the hardcore alike
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Fine. I'll do it myself. But the problem wasn't just Marvel. Other films started to use these post-credit scenes with the intent on building anticipation for their future releases and sequels, but they didn't go nearly as well
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Look at what Marvel's direct competition DC attempted to do. The original ending of the theatrical release of Justice League ended with Deathstroke and Lex Luthor meeting on a yacht
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teasing the establishment of the DCEU's Legion of Doom. He and his odd little friends are forming some sort of league
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Shouldn't we have a league of our own? And that went nowhere
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The same thing can be said for DC's post-credited attempts with Shazam, Wonder Woman 1984, Black Adam, and Suicide Squad
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even going as far back as DC's first attempt at starting an interconnected universe, Green Lantern
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Their tease of the Sinestro Corps landed about as well as everything else in that movie
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Ah, green! Wow. I know, right? Literally, every one of these setups went nowhere or were immediately abandoned by the corporate
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overlords, making the entire convention of post-credit scenes feel less cool and unique
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and more just like something the filmmakers had to do out of obligation. You better not be wasting my time
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No, I have too much to live for. As we move deeper into the 2010s
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even non-superhero fare like the Monsterverse, G.I. Joe, and Fast and Furious tried to get in
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on the post-credits party. Most of this is pretty awful. And here where we get back to Marvel where the idea of sitting through yet another 15 minute long credit sequence seems less preferable than just getting up and walking out of the theater By the end of phase four the post hype machine has run its course
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There doesn't seem to be any real connectivity or direction for the next three phases of the MCU
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The post-credits scene at the end of Thor Love and Thunder, that's gone basically nowhere
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Star Fox in the end of The Eternals, don't expect that to show up anytime soon. The Doctor Strange post-credits scene
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well, that one might be the worst of all. You caused an incursion, and we're going to fix it
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On the surface, the introduction of Clea and the confirmation that we're officially heading
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towards secret wars should be exciting. But it's not a clear narrative path in the way that Thanos was communicated to audiences
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It's just a portal opening up and Doctor Strange being told there's more adventure in store
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And to make things worse, it completely nullifies the ending of the movie we just watched
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Why did we just spend two hours with Stephen Strange to have his growth as a character
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and the crucial consequence for his hubris, hand-waved away in two seconds
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The MCU's obsession with expanding ever outwards is reaching a breaking point
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Sony has their very own universe of Spider-Man-less films, and their post-credits scenes are without a doubt
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the most painful and not at all thought out, a key example being the stinger for Morbius
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The sequence shows an incursion happening and then the vulture appearing in a prison cell
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We quickly see his release and then a middle-of-nowhere rendezvous with Morbius
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Thanks for meeting me, Doc. I've been reading about you. I'm listening
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I'm not sure how I got here. Has to do with Spider-Man, I think
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There's no way there's any sort of grander plan for the Sony Spider-Universe of cash grabs
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You can just feel it on every level. So not only was this tacked onto a terrible movie
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but it's a terrible setup for a definitely non-existent plan for a future Sinister Six film
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It's just insulting on every level. And that's the problem with all these current post-credit scenes
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They're not included because the filmmakers have a grander vision like the original Iron
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Man stinger. They included because the corporate powers that be want everyone to think there a grander vision at hand Take for instance the most recent Transformers soft reboot In that post scene they set up the idea
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that the Transformers are going to be joining a secret governmental agency named G.I. Joe
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Will that actually ever happen? Is there a plan for a Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover movie
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No, definitely not. G.I. Joe has been screwed up each of the three times it's been on the big
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screen already. There's no way anyone would put any forethought or planning into this project
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Even Marvel is completely out of gas when it comes to generating hype via post-credit scenes
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When the Marvels started tracking at only $70 million for its opening weekend, what did they do
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Include a new post-credit scene featuring a major Marvel character that is seemingly only there to
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keep us on the hook for future installments. Not every film is meant to launch an interconnected
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universe. And similarly, not every installment in said universes are going to have sky-high stakes
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And yet, these studios can't afford that. They want every possible dollar wrung out of every
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potential moviegoer. Thus, the post-credit and mid-credit scenes are required to generate as
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much excitement for future stories as possible. We need to face it. In-credit surprises have run
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their course. They're played out and they've been abused by every single movie with delusions of
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launching a franchise. Is there a time or a place when they can be used effectively? Of course
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but not every movie needs one. There's only one problem. Things are only going to get worse
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Even beloved indie studio A24 seems to be chasing the franchise money, just like everyone else
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purportedly trying to get out of the auteur-driven space and into the more IP-driven big-budget
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realm of filmmaking. So what's the lesson to learn from any of this? Too much of a good thing isn't
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good. And if you want a diverse selection of films to be made, you need to support them
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Maybe when Kraven finally gets released, don't go see it. Sony doesn't need your money
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and at the end of the day, we already know the post-credits scene is going to suck
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