Werewolf by Night howled its way onto Disney Plus this Friday, marking the first of a new type of MCU content — a Marvel Studios Special Presentation. Clocking in at around 55 minutes, the horror-themed special comprises a standalone story which introduces Gael Garcia Bernal’s eponymous lycanthrope into the franchise, alongside numerous other Marvel horror characters.
Given the unique format of the special, however, as it’s neither a movie or a TV series, it’s difficult to know whether you should stick around past the credits to wait for the traditional post-credits scene. Well, if you’re reading this ahead of sticking on the episode or if the credits are playing in front of your eyes right now, here’s what you need to know.
Does Werewolf by Night have a post-credits sequence?
In short, no, Werewolf by Night does not have a post-credits scene.
This is somewhat surprising as it ditches a long-standing MCU tradition — its oldest tradition, in fact, seeing as it started in 2008’s Iron Man — and Kevin Feige had teased that WbN would prove integral to the future of the franchise. So naturally we expected a brief hint at what’s to come, maybe even an appearance from Mahershala Ali’s Blade, for instance.
While speaking to Inverse, however, director Michael Giacchino defended his decision not to include a tag scene at the end of the special. According to the long-term composer turned first-time filmmaker, there was simply no storytelling reason to slip some extra material in at the end. “It just felt like, we told our story,” he explained. “We’re good.”
Giacchino went on to stress that he loves the studio’s post-credits craze just as much anyone, but he admits that sometimes they can overshadow what came before, which was something he was keen to avoid here. As he elaborated:
“I know those things are fun. I love those things. But I also felt like we don’t have to do them all the time. I don’t want to distract from the story we told. These characters are so important to me. I was like, ‘Let’s just end with our characters.’ Let’s just end with the idea of what’s next.”
While fans might initially be disappointed by the lack of a tag, Giacchino makes a very valid point. How many times have we hung around in the theater for a movie’s credits scene only for it to turn out to be wholly inconsequential? So, if there was nothing left to say with Werewolf by Night, maybe it was for the best that it ended early.
