Marvel Needs To Stop Making Post-Credits Scenes

While the quality (and relevancy) of MCU films may be up in the air at the moment, one thing is true about their releases – there will always be a post-credits scene. Audiences have been trained to expect teasers for what’s next, but in my view, these scenes have worn out their welcome.

When I finished watching the thoroughly mediocre Captain America: Brave New World, while I wanted nothing more than to leave the theater and move on with my life, I couldn’t. I was seeing the film with my brother for his birthday, and he wanted to see the post-credits scene. In fact, everyone in the audience refused to leave, and on a packed opening night screening, not one person left before the post-credits scene. Props I guess to Marvel for cultivating a mindset with its fans that they know instinctively not to leave the theater before seeing the post-credits scene, but at this point, they’re not even worth it.

I think back to the initial post-credits scene and what it entailed. After Iron Man, we had Samuel L. Jackson waltz on-screen as Nick Fury and asked if Tony wanted to be a part of the Avengers. In that single moment, history, and precedence, were set, creating a formula that Marvel would use for most of its post-credits scenes. Introduce a new MCU character, let fans speculate on them for a year or so, leaving fans to wonder how they’ll impact future events, they properly introduce them. During the Infinity Saga, this all made sense, since we knew that we were building to a big central threat, Thanos. But with a lack of direction in the MCU’s Multiverse Saga, post-credit scenes are less teases on what’s to come but more blatant attempts to keep audiences engaged.

Looking at the past several major MCU films that had post-credits scenes that tried to set up future films – Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, and Captain America: Brave New World – each of them failed because Marvel didn’t know what they wanted to do. Granted, in the case of Quantumania’s post-credit scene, wherein Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror communes with a council of thousands of Kangs, that got tossed aside due to Marvel publically parting with Majors after he was accused, and subsequently convicted, of assault. But that set forward a ripple effect that Marvel still hasn’t recovered from.

Marvel put all their eggs in the Kang basket, banking on Jonathan Majors to guide the franchise in the post-Thanos world, but they got all the eggs on their face. They specifically teased the Council of Kangs and what they were going to do to the MCU, but now that post-credits scene is worthless. Marvel has publically shifted to just bringing out Robert Downey Jr. again, though this time as Doctor Doom, and abandoned this post-credits scene. They teased an ultra-specific scenario that was going to happen, so it only makes sense that for Captain America: Brave New World, they would go in the exact opposite direction and be so vague and general that this scene can be used to tease any future conflict.

After the credits have rolled on Captain America: Brave New World and Sam Wilson goes to visit Tim Blake Nelsons’ The Leader, he teases Wilson of an incoming threat, just labeling them as “the others.” Who are the others? They can be anything or anyone. It doesn’t matter. To Marvel, they’re not making the same mistake they made with Kang. They’re not going to be embarrassed again like they were last time. Now we can get a general promise that something is going to happen to the satisfaction of no one.

And what about all of the other lingering plot threads teased by post-credit scenes that have yet to happen? The Marvels promised the X-Men in 2023, but no X-Men film has been announced through 2027. Hercules still hasn’t made an appearance after Thor: Love & Thunder, and it’s approaching three years this summer since he was teased. And how goes that Blade movie that was teased back in 2021? How many directors have left that film at this point? Does it even have a release date anymore?

The point of that original post-credits teaser back at the end of Iron Man was to assure fans that there was more to come. Iron Man wasn’t going to be a one-off movie and there were bigger and better things on the horizon. The point of the tease was to keep fans coming back for more and make them come back for more. But Marvel already has fans hooked. It’s been 17 years since Iron Man. No one needs to be reminded that this franchise is going to continue. It’s a multi-billion-dollar franchise. It isn’t going anywhere and doesn’t need minute-long clips teasing what’s next.

So why still have post-credit scenes? Simply to have them? Based on my screening for Captain America: Brave New World, fans were annoyed by just how much of a nothing burger this post-credits scene was. If you’re not going to say or do anything interesting with them, don’t have it. At this point, Marvel post-credit scenes have become a vestigial tail for the franchise that should either be reinvented or stopped all together.