Although not invented by Marvel, post-credits scenes became a staple of the Avengers: Endgame, which didn't include post-credits scenes as the movie symbolized the end of an era, all MCU movies have at least one post-credit scene, with various including two. While many MCU post-credits scenes offered comic relief, their main objective from the beginning of MCU Phase 1 was to set up a connection between the single movie and the characters it introduced and the overarching narrative of the MCU phases.
MCU's first post-credits scene in 2008's Avengers: Infinity War's big villain.
MCU Phase 3 continued the tradition as well. Its post-credits scenes tended to introduce new characters to old ones in light of Avengers: Endgame (The Eternals taking the top spot as both post-credits scenes either introduced a character that will be seen in Phase 5 (Mahershala Ali's Blade) or one who isn't entirely clear when he'll show up again (Harry Styles' Starfox).
Marvel's After Credits Scenes Are Increasingly A Problem
While Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – it also exacerbated Phase 3's issue of introducing story arcs that still haven't paid off, as Phase 4 continued doing.
MCU Phase 4 post-credits scenes overshadowing the movies they appeared in was another prominent issue. Falcon and the Winter Soldier's John Walker (Wyatt Russell), but it also overshadowed Black Widow's central story, as many were left thinking about what that meant and Yelena being in Hawkeye rather than focusing on Black Widow's final appearance.
Marvel's Hulk Reveal Makes The MCU's End Credits Problem Even Worse
She-Hulk introduced another layer of issues to MCU post-credits scene, as to let Jen Walters (Tatiana Maslany) be infected by her cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Bruce had to appear in his human form rather than his Smart Hulk one. This caused Endgame version of Smart Hulk wasn't available till one year later in She-Hulk, where he finally explained to Jen that he found a way to be human so that his arm could heal better in that form. As it was explained by She-Hulk producer Jessica Gao, the awkward Shang-Chi after-credits scene was there only to be able to justify Smart Hulk's transformation back to Bruce Banner, making the post-credits scene more confusing rather than a clever tease as they were in the past MCU Phases 1 and 2.
While it's unlikely – and even entirely undesirable, as they did prove valuable and alluring in the past – that Marvel will stop using post-credits scenes, it can only be hoped that they'll go back to point to a somewhat precise narrative arc in the future. Marvel's Phase 4 has, until now, only been able to deliver an almost equal amount of hype-inducing and somewhat confusing post-credits scenes. Hopefully, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe regains its footing following the end of the Avengers era thanks to the new interesting characters introduced in Phase 4, it will have a clearer view of what to hint at of Phases 5 and 6 in the future Marvel post-credits scenes.
