While post-credit scenes have become a staple of the record-shattering Marvel Cinematic Universe since it began in 2008, Avengers: Endgame noticeably lacked one.
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ‘AVENGERS: ENDGAME’ WILL FOLLOW AFTER THE GIFs (LITERALLY, RIGHT AFTER THE GIFs).
In case the name of the movie itself didn’t give it away, Avengers: Endgame was meant to close the chapter on a major portion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
And close a major chapter it did, as the character who got the whole thing started, Tony Stark, sacrificed his life in order to snap Thanos and his army off the face of existence.
However, Tony Stark (and Natasha Romanoff) wasn’t the only one to permanently depart from the MCU, as the Avengers: Endgame directors — Joe and Anthony Russo — also will not be returning for any future Marvel Studios productions.
Due to the final nature of Endgame, the Russo Brothers opted not to include a post-credit scene because, well, no one is thinking that far ahead right now.
“This is the first MCU movie we got to tell where we weren’t thinking [about the future]. You’re simply thinking about the past and the journey that we’ve all been out together since that first Iron Man movie and how do we bring the most epic sense of closure to that journey we can possibly do,” Anthony Russo said in an interview with SlashFilm.
“So that was our goal and that was really why we had no tag because … even the people at Marvel aren’t thinking about the future of Marvel. Joe and I don’t have any plans to continue with Marvel after this,” he concluded.
Given that Avengers: Endgame was the 22nd film in 11 years of MCU movies, now seems as logical as a time as ever to close one chapter so a new one — led by the likes of Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, and Dr. Strange — can begin.
