Outside the Beltway

Marvel Post-Credit Scenes

Here’s one vote for ending this annoying practice.

James Joyner
9

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As has become the custom, Marvel’s Black Panther movie featured not one but two post-credit scenes. There’s a brief one very shortly into the credits and then another, more significant set-up for the next MCU movie, at the end.

This was sort of cute the first couple go-rounds. Who can forget Samuel L. Jackson announcing the Avenger Initiative?

But it’s moved beyond stale to more than a bit annoying. The movie runs 2 hours, 15 minutes. That’s after at least 15 minutes of previews, probably more like 20. Why torture the paying customers for another 10 minutes or so watching lists of the thousands of people and entities who worked on the flick? It would be as if book publishers forced us to read the index before we could read the epilogue. Indeed, I’d hope the faux end sequence in Spiderman: Homecoming was a signal that we were done with the schtick.

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9 responses to “Marvel Post-Credit Scenes”

  1. M. Bouffant Avatar
    M. Bouffant

    Just guesses, but it may be Hollywood ego. They want people to stay in the theater while the credits roll. (I’ve also noticed that many of these comic book flicks, at least, seem to open cold & actually w/hold all the credits, even the above-the-line ones that used to appear at the beginning, until the end.)

    They may also want people not to change the channel at home. No one’s sitting through five+ mins. identifying the third assistant renderers for one of many effects/C.G.I. shops involved when the remote’s in their hand unless there’s something interesting coming.

    May also be a reaction to television channels boxing the credits & running them at double or triple speed while the intro to the next show is playing in a larger box above.

  2. Turgid Jacobian Avatar
    Turgid Jacobian

    I don’t mind. Honestly, unless we’re *really* excited about the movie we don’t go at all. We’ve seen a short handful of the MCU flicks in the theater and weren’t fussed about staying to watch the extra scenes–for the ones we didn’t bother to see in the theater we just watched on the internet.

    Also? It’s really instructive just how huge an enterprise it takes to do these big SFX blockbusters.

    1
  3. Franklin Avatar
    Franklin

    It is my understanding that the studios get a lot of fairly cheap work done out of people who are overly thrilled with being in the credits. If being in the credits loses its status (and it should, since there are about a million people in the credits now), they’d have to pay more for that work. So I think this is a way to keep the credits important.

    1
  4. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    @Franklin: I can’t imagine many are actually reading the credits. They just check their phones and stuff until the scene breaks in. But it’s an annoying wait.

  5. Stormy Dragon Avatar
    Stormy Dragon

    I like to stay through the end credits to listen to the music. In a lot of movies the end credits is the most interesting part of the score.

    1
  6. Just 'nutha ig'nint cracker Avatar
    Just ‘nutha ig’nint cracker

    @James Joyner: Then don’t stay. It’s not like you can’t see the extra trailer on YouTube in a day or three.

    3
  7. PJ Avatar
    PJ

    @James Joyner:

    @Franklin: I can’t imagine many are actually reading the credits. They just check their phones and stuff until the scene breaks in. But it’s an annoying wait.

    If I hadn’t read the credits (while waiting for the post credit scenes), then I would not have wondered why Ta-Nehisi Coates was thanked in them, and, after googling, found out that he’s the head writer of the new Black Panther series launched in 2016…

    1
  8. rachel Avatar
    rachel

    @James Joyner: I read the credits. I like to see all the different kinds of names there are and I want to know stuff like the costume designers and the OST.

    3
  9. Anonne Avatar
    Anonne

    The credits tend to be the connective glue to the rest of the universe, in mostly unconnected films. Sometimes it’s just a laugh, like “shawarma” in Avengers, or Easter eggs (of which there is one in the second end credits scene). If you don’t want to stay, leave. No one is forcing you to stay. You can get spoilers and stuff on the Internet before the movie even comes out.

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