What is the one thing that we confidently expect to see in every single superhero movie? An A-list actor doing the minimum to cash their hefty paycheck? Lackluster CGI created by VFX heroes suffering from awful working conditions? Well, yes, those too, but mostly it’s a post-credits scene. Ever since Samuel L. Jackson told Robert Downey Jr. he was part of a bigger universe in 2008’s Iron Man, the sequel-teasing tag sequence has become synonymous with the comic book film genre.
It takes a real maverick to ditch the tried-and-tested formula — Avengers: Endgame had no post-credits scene, for instance, but only because that was the perfect choice to mark this conclusion to the Infinity Saga. By and large, pretty much every MCU, DC, and Sony Marvel movie you care to mention contains a mid-credits sequence (if not one at the end in addition). Well, Madame Web isn’t just any superhero movie — just look at its Rotten Tomatoes score — and it is a fact that it contains no post-credits scene.
This may seem like a small omission on the surface, but if you dig deeper it has something more to say about Sony’s faith in the project and perhaps even the future of the medium.
No Madame Web post-credits scene means there is no possible hope for a sequel
The writing has been on the wall for Madame Web since, well, probably since Sony elected to hire the makers of Morbius to bring it to life, for starters. There has been very little positive buzz surrounding the project since its announcement, and this was only cemented upon the release of its first trailer in November 2023 — which was received so disastrously that Dakota Johnson had parted with her talent reps within a week (I’m legally obliged to note that these two events may be unconnected).
Box office predictions have been embarrassingly low all along to boot, but it seems that Sony has had a lack of faith in this thing since the very beginning. Director S.J. Clarkson may have told The Hollywood Reporter that there’s no tag because “it was about telling a great story” and she felt there was no more to tell, but the absence speaks to a bigger problem. If there was really nothing more to tease, or even one more moment of character comedy to squeeze in, then that tells us all we need to know about how anemic the world of Madame Web is and why there was never any hope for a Madame Web 2.
Are we witnessing the death of the superhero post-credits scene?
On a broader note, it’s interesting to draw a connection between Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the superhero movie immediately preceding Madame Web in the release schedule, and Sony’s film. Aquaman 2‘s awkward gag of a tag — featuring Patrick Wilson’s Orm munching on a cockroach burger, referencing a joke from earlier on — felt like a weak nod of the head to a trope that the filmmakers had no real interest in continuing. Likewise, Clarkson’s MW comment suggests she felt the same.
Meanwhile, the MCU is rigidly committed to its own credits scenes, but they are becoming increasingly meaningless — what use is Harry Styles showing up as Thanos’ brother or Roy Kent as Hercules if they’re never going to return? Perhaps James Gunn’s upcoming DCU will take note of this and do away with post-credits scenes altogether? Who knows, maybe in a few years the whole genre will sit up and say “Wait, Madame Web was right!”
For now, though, it’s just another reason why audiences would rather go study spiders in the Amazon than go see it in cinemas.
Published: Feb 14, 2024 06:40 am