One of the many things Marvel is famous for is their use of post-credits scenes, which have varied from setting up future movie to comedic afterthoughts (I’m looking at you, Howard the Duck). However, Marvel is taking a different post-credits direction for next month’s Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Preceded only by 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, the May blockbuster will be the second Marvel Studios film without a scene after the credits.
Director Joss Whedon told Entertainment Weekly that the reason Avengers: Age Of Ultron is not including a post-credits scene is because the production team didn’t think there was any way they could top the shawarma scene from The Avengers. According to Whedon:
It didn’t seem to lend itself in the same way, and we wanted to be true to what felt right. The first rule of making a sequel is take the best moments and do something else. Don’t do the Indiana Jones gun trick again differently. Just go somewhere else. Don’t try to hit the same highs, because people will sense it.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige clarified that Avengers: Age Of Ultron will have a "tag scene," i.e. an epilogue that will pop up after the credits start, but not a "post-post-credit scene." Whedon assured fans that this is not a "fake-out," so once that tag scene is finished, there’s no reason for you to stay in the theater unless you’re really keen on reading all the names involved with the production. You would probably be better off going on IMDB when you get home to look up that information.
To put this into perspective, let’s look back The Avengers. Its "tag" scene was The Other (the guy who was barking orders at Loki) telling Thanos that to fight the humans would be to court death, while Earth’s Mightiest Heroes ate shawarma after the credits finished rolling. Another example is Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which had a tag introducing Baron Strucker, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch, and a post-credits scene of Bucky at the Smithsonian.
The Avengers: Age Of Ultron tag scene will likely be used to tease a future movie (possibly Captain America: Civil War or the Avengers: Infinity War movies), but there won’t be a humorous moment afterward. I was hoping that the Avengers would at least go out for Thai food or another after-battle meal, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
Avengers: Age Of Ultron will hit theaters on May 1.
