In the wake of Superman's release, director James Gunn revealed why one spoiler character appeared in the movie's post-credits sequence. Gunn's high-flying DCU opener just came to theaters, introducing audiences to a new on-screen take on the world of DC Comics. While much of the DCU is new, one thing is very familiar: the use of post-credits stingers (popularized by the MCU).
Superman features two stingers coming during the credits roll, although they are not exactly the world-building 'you have to see it' stingers fans have come to know and love from the genre. Instead, they are a little simpler. One features David Corenswet's Superman cuddling his super-powered canine, Krypto, on the moon. And the other is a scene that looks to be pulled right from the movie, showing the Man of Steel alongside Edi Gathegi's Mister Terrific hilariously surveying the carnage left over from the movie's final act dimensional tear.
While including these particular post-credits stingers might confuse some, Gunn says he had good reason for choosing these scenes as a final encore for the new 2025 Superman movie.
In a new interview with Screen Rant, Gunn revealed he chose to include the Mister Terrific post-credit scene in particular to "[give] the audience something for having stuck around through the credits," that they thought was "fun." That is when they landed on Mister Terrific:
"I don't want to set up stuff just because it's a shocking post-credit scene that we're never going to pay off. However, I do like giving the audience something for having stuck around through the credits and seeing who all the hardworking people are on the film. And so giving them something, I think, is fun. And that's what I did. So we put Terrific at the end."
This seems to indicate that Gunn and company always knew Gathegi's superhero character was going to be a fan-favorite (like he has quickly become), so he thought to reward his audience with another scene featuring a character moviegoers had just fallen in love with throughout the movie.
Gunn also mentioned that he decided to go this direction with his Superman post-credits scenes to avoid setting things up in stingers that "never pay off:"
"And I really have found – and I've said it before – but I've set up things in the post-credit scenes, and Marvel has set up things in the post-credit scenes that never pay off...Unless it's really for sure going to pay off... like if we were making – we know what the Supergirl movie is – so if it was a payoff at the end of the credits that had to do with something in the 'Supergirl' movie, I would be open to that. We know that's happening."
Superman is now playing in theaters everywhere, marking the debut of David Corenswet's take on the Man of Steel. Directed by former Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker James Gunn, Superman follows its titular hero as he squares off with the villainous Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who is hell-bent on discrediting Superman in the public eye.
What Is the DCU's Post-Credits Strategy?
Heading into Superman, it was unclear what James Gunn and his fellow DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran had planned for the DCU's post-credit strategy.
While the MCU has made a name for itself for its after-credits stinger, often setting up the stories to come in the super-powered franchise, it was not guaranteed that the new DC universe would do the same thing. Some speculated that, heading into the movie, Superman may not include a post-credits scene at all.
That was ultimately not the case (as fans now know), with two stingers attached to the new DC Comics epic. However, both of these scenes seemed inconsequential to the greater DCU, which will likely be the case for the franchise in the future.
One of the biggest differences between the DCU and the MCU is that James Gunn will not greenlight a movie until a script has been written and approved. This is a stark difference from the MCU's carefully calculated storytelling formula, which sometimes has a dozen projects announced on the slate at any given time.
Because of Gunn's 'we need a script' mandate, it is much harder to include these stingers setting up the next chapter in the franchise, as (at times) it will be unclear what project is coming when.
Sure, he could allude to some of the larger story beats for the universe at large, but right now, where the franchise will go with its stingers going forward remains unclear.
