Don’t Expect Many Post-Credits Scenes In The DCU — And For Good Reason
“I’m really careful about those sorts of promises that we don’t know that we can deliver.”
James Gunn’s break from Marvel was pretty amicable, given the infamous saga of his firing, rehiring, and subsequent departure. Despite that tumult, Gunn has been diplomatic when discussing Marvel. Though he’s now the creative co-chair at DC Studios, Marvel’s biggest competitor, he still looks back fondly on his time in the MCU.
Still, working within an interconnected film saga was not without its challenges, and Gunn was bound to have some frustrations with the MCU. If nothing else, his priorities for the new DC Universe reveal a lot about Marvel’s worst habits.
At a recent press event alongside DC co-chair Peter Safran, Gunn discussed the finer details of his new strategy. Once the DCU is up and running, Gunn and Safran hope to stick to a consistent release schedule of two live-action films and one animated movie per year. Their strategy is the same on the TV front, with the pair aiming to premiere two live-action shows and one animated show on Max each year.
After “cramming” Adam Warlock into Guardians of the Galaxy 3, James Gunn is wary of post-credits teasers.
That’s an ambitious target, but Gunn and Safran also stressed the importance of pre-production. Per Gizmodo, the team is prioritizing strong scripts above all. Unlike Marvel, who’ve built a brand teasing storylines years in advance, Gunn and Safran won’t announce or tease anything without a finished script in place.
That hesitation comes from Gunn’s experience with Marvel, where he had to adhere to stories teased in post-credits scenes. While they’ve become synonymous with the MCU, Gunn confirms they can also be “a real nightmare” for writers. Gunn learned this the hard way when developing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. He’d previously teased Adam Warlock as a future villain in Guardians 2, but after six years and two Avengers movies, Gunn’s vision had understandably shifted.
“Writing Guardians 3, I wasn’t really sure if Adam Warlock should be in it. But I f—ing promised people,” Gunn told Gizmodo. So the director found himself “cramming” the character in. “And I like him in the movie. I like the character. But it made it a little less elegant in some ways, the film.”
Post-credits scenes can be “a real nightmare” for writers... so the DCU may not have many.
Marvel’s serialized storytelling has its upsides, but it’s felt increasingly like a chore to keep up with all those loose threads. Marvel teased a trove of potential characters and conflicts after Avengers: Endgame, but very few of them have borne fruit. From Hercules in Thor: Love and Thunder to the Black Knight in Eternals, the franchise is buckling under the weight of its own promises. Post-credit scenes now feel more like empty promises than fun teases, so it makes sense that Gunn would want to avoid them in the DCU.
“I’m really careful about those sorts of promises that we don’t know that we can deliver,” continued Gunn. DCU films and shows will still likely feel like chapters in a larger story, but there may not be quite as many teasers baked in. Superman, the first film in the new universe, will serve as a launching point for a handful of stories in development, like Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and Lanterns. From there, Gunn and Safran seem content to feel things out as they go. It’s a sound strategy, given the increasingly clunky alternative.
