Why Avengers: Endgame has no end-credits scene. Warning: spoiler alert!
- The directors, Joe and Anthony Russo talk about directing the final episode in the 22-film series
- Marvel usually includes a scene during the credits to tease the next instalment, but this time the Russos skipped the tradition
Spoiler alert! The following discusses the very end of Avengers: Endgame , so come back later if you haven’t seen it yet.
Since Nick Fury approached Tony Stark about the Avengers Initiative in 2008’s Iron Man, a bonus scene in the credits has been a trademark of every Marvel superhero film, as much a signature as the Stan Lee cameos and box-office dominance.
But Avengers: Endgame – an action-packed, emotionally exhausting three-hour culmination of the 22-film saga so far – breaks from tradition by skipping Marvel’s usual stingers, which have at times teased the next movie in the series or just been a quick gag for a couple of laughs as the audience leaves the theatre.
“It was never in the cards,” director Joe Russo tells USA TODAY. “It was called Endgame for a reason. This is it. This is the ending. The book is closed on that chapter of the Marvel universe and a new book will get written.”
His brother, director Anthony Russo, adds it was a “great thrill” not having to steer the Marvel ship for where it goes next. “This was the first Marvel movie we’ve done where we weren’t thinking about the future.”
In addition to Endgame, they directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier , Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War , always having a “Where’s this going?” mindset, Joe Russo says.
Now, “there’s no future,” Anthony Russo says. “There will be a future, of course, but it’s not our responsibility.”
There is a little something extra, though, as the final Endgame credits roll and that familiar Marvel Studios logo pops up on screen. In the background, you can hear the clanging of Stark (Robert Downey Jnr) building his first Iron Man armour in the original film.
Anthony Russo calls it “an echo of the past” rather than a tease to someone else wearing the iconic costume at a later date.
“It’s really just an homage, sort of a little bookend,” Joe Russo says. “It started it and it ends it.”
For those missing their end-credits scenes, and wanting a blast from the past, here’s the very first one with Downey and Samuel L. Jackson’s meeting:
