I’m tired of MCU post-credits scenes that go nowhere, which is why Superman’s organic world-building is such a breath of fresh air

Pretty much since the iconic Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) cameo first screened at the end of 2008’s Iron Man, the forward-thinking post-credits scene has been a must for any superhero movie… Or heck, any blockbuster, really. Audiences have come to understand that if you leave the theater before the credits start, you’re missing out on “important” information that impacts The Future of Cinema. But with the dawn of James Gunn’s new DCU with Superman, that’s all changed – and frankly, for the better.

Spoilers for Superman past this point, but the mid-credits and end credits of the movie don’t tease anything in particular; they’re just sweet and funny, respectively. The mid-credits scene is essentially the motion poster that was released months ago, with Superman (David Corenswet) and Krypto sitting on the moon together, looking at the Earth. The end credits scene has Superman and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) looking at a building in Metropolis that didn’t quite come back together the right way after they sealed a massive, extra-dimensional rift in the movie proper.

If you’re looking for future-facing teases, you have to look in the movie itself. While there may be more unannounced projects set up in the movie (Krypto and the Social Media Monkeys spinoff, when?), there are really only two things set up, in the lightest way possible. The first features Peacemaker (John Cena) appearing on a talk show to dismiss other superheroes, directly setting up the character getting dismissed by the Justice Gang in Peacemaker Season 2 (as seen in the trailer for the series), which is already set to stream on HBO Max in August.

And in the pre-credits scene, we get to see Supergirl (Milly Alcock) arrive at the Fortress of Solitude to pick up her dog, Krypto. Turns out, when Superman said Krypto was sort of a foster dog in the movie, he meant he was holding on to the superpowered canine for his cousin. Barring Warner Bros. Discovery shutting down tomorrow (or shelving Supergirl a la Batgirl), the cameos in Superman aren’t coy teases; they’re including elements of the DCU that already are guaranteed to exist in the future.

'locked and loaded

This approach to universe building, particularly when it comes to having something lighter and fun for the end credits, was specifically spurred on by Gunn’s experiences with the MCU. Talking to EW, Gunn recalled that, “I did not like what I did in Guardians 2 where we set up Adam Warlock and we set up the Guardians of the Galaxy and we set up all this shit that I didn't necessarily plan on… The way a post-credits scene works is a punch to the face, like, 'Oh my God! Look at this.' At times when you're using it just solely to set something up, sometimes you're screwing yourself over. It was not easy to work Adam Warlock into Guardians 3. I loved working with Will, and I liked dealing with the character, but at the end of the day, was he kind of fitting a weird square peg into a round hole? A little bit, yeah."

And that bad experience seeped into Gunn’s first take on the DC Universe in The Suicide Squad, where he did include a post-credits teaser for Peacemaker Season 1… But after he had already begun production on the TV series.

Gunn, frankly, is being a little kind to his former employers and hard on himself. Adam Warlock worked because he made it work. Contrast that with the detritus left behind by post-credits scenes and forward-looking teases throughout MCU history. Sure, they got around to the internet’s favorite punching bag, Tiamut from Eternals, in Captain America: Brave New World. But what about that post-credits scene with the Black Knight (Kit Harrington) that also featured the vocal debut of Blade (Mahershala Ali), whose movie has shifted off the schedule entirely? There’s also the introduction of Harry Styles’ Eros, and Patton Oswalt’s Pip the Troll, which… Does anyone think we’ll see them anytime soon?

The neverending story

Not to turn this into an airing of gripes, but there’s Clea (Charlize Theron) taking Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to the Dark Dimension at the end of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Hercules (Brett Goldstein) showing up in Thor: Love and Thunder, the introduction of Skaar (Wil Deusner) son of Hulk in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law… The list goes on. Some may get picked up, like whatever the signal was in Shang-Chi’s (Simu Liu) rings in Shang-Chi, since the character is in Avengers: Doomsday. And generously speaking, maybe all of the two dozen dangling plot points from the MCU will be wrapped up neatly in that film and the sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars.

But to bring it back to the Nick Fury tease, the funny part about that is Marvel didn’t know that Iron Man was going to be the success it was, though they did very quickly announce a slate of films building up to the first Avengers movie, the Monday after opening. And the flying by the seat of their pants approach served the MCU for a good long while… Until it didn’t. Lately, the MCU films and TV series have laid a trail of post-credits scenes that may or may never pan out, up to the recent cliffhangers at the end of Disney+’s Ironheart that likely will never be followed up on, thanks to business changes since the series was filmed, mostly in 2022. That lack of follow-through, among many other reasons, has eroded the audience’s trust in the MCU. The reaction has changed from a thrill about where the characters may show up next, to a frustrated shrug about whether they’ll ever show up at all.

With Gunn trying to forge a new path and learn from the MCU’s mistakes, at least with Superman, it seems he’s doing the right thing: making sure that if there is a tease, it’s for something they already know the plan for, and is already in progress. Though fingers crossed there’s still room for a surprise Krypto/Monkeys movie.

For more, read our Superman review, or check out our guide to the Superman ending explained.