How James Gunn designed them

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Superman.

Yes, Superman has a post-credits scene. Two, in fact. One around the mid-credits and a second at the very end. The scenes featured don’t exactly tease anything or set up future DC projects, and that’s how writer, director, and studio head James Gunn wants it.

The mid-credits scene runs just a few seconds long and shows Superman (David Corenswet) sitting on the moon with Krypto in his arms, looking down at Earth. There is some meaning behind it. It’s a recreation of a scene from All-Star Supermanthe comic written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely, which proved heavily influential on Gunn when writing this movie.

It’s also a variation of the first image Warner Bros. and DC Studios ever released of Krypto the Super Dog in the film.

The actual Superman post-credits scene is more lighthearted. The bit sees Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) getting frustrated with the Man of Steel for pointing out that a building in Metropolis looks eschewed. The entire city was split in two by a rift pouring out of Lex Luthor’s (Nicholas Hoult) portal, and when it was sealed shut, all these cracked buildings were haphazardly mashed back together. So, yes, it’s not quite as seamless a fix.

In a previous interview with Entertainment WeeklyGunn, who co-heads DC Studios with Peter Safran, explained his philosophy around post-credits scenes and how they will largely work in the franchise. “It’s somewhat related to my own mistakes in my time with Marvel,” he said.

The filmmaker, who previously directed the Guardians of the Galaxy movies for Disney’s Marvel Studios, pointed to feedback he gave on the script for Avengers: Endgame. That 2019 movie ended with Chris Hemsworth’s Thor joining the Guardians crew on the Milano ship.

“I said in the script notes: ‘I’m not gonna put him in. I don’t want to have Thor in the Guardians. I don’t want to do a movie with Thor,'” Gunn remembered. “I don’t understand the character that much. I love watching his movies, and I love Chris Hemsworth as a guy. I don’t understand how to write that character.”

On a similar note, he pointed to the end-credits scene of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (2017), which teed up the arrival of Marvel comics character Adam Warlock. Will Poulter would eventually play the role in Vol. 3 (2023).

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“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,” Gunn explained. “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.”

For SupermanGunn likened the post-credits scene more to the Howard the Duck reveal at the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), something that was purely fun for the audience to see. That’s not to say future DCU projects won’t have post-credits scenes that more directly set up other movies or shows. Gunn clarified that could happen, but only if “it really, really works.”

Superman is now playing in theaters.