At this point, the post-credit scenes have become a phenomenon within the MCU. Most movies fade to black and start rolling the credits and the audience gets up from their seat, gathers their trash (if they’re the decent kind of theater-goer), and exits the theatre, maybe already starting to discuss their thoughts on the film with whoever they came along with. When the credits of an MCU movie start to roll, fans just sink back into their seats, knowing that there’s even more to come.

The post-credits scenes started as a way to include fun little scenes and Easter eggs that weren’t essential to the enjoyment of the film or the MCU as a whole, and were just a treat for fans who stuck around to read all the names in the credits. However, they quickly evolved into an essential part of the MCU, even inspiring a lot of other movies to start including scenes and teasers after their credits. Now, the MCU mid and post-credits scenes often give big hints towards future MCU projects, and are always meant to be a big surprise for fans at the end of the film. But is this approach starting to take on too much of a life of its own?

RELATED: Eternals' Snap Explanation Still Rings Hollow

The discussion around this topic was flamed by recent events surrounding the Eternals press screening, where a critic took to Twitter to spoil the end credits scene of the film. The spoiler was subsequently picked up and reported on by major news outlets, making it almost impossible to avoid for anyone who had even the slightest presence online. Fans were outraged by this, because the reveal was something huge that would have been exciting to see in the theatre for the first time with no prior knowledge, and that was clearly the effect that Marvel intended. It's understandable that fans were upset by this early reveal, because the post-credit scene surprises are part of the fun of watching Marvel movies, but there were so many extreme negative reactions that it calls into question if the MCU post-credit scenes have become a little too infamous for their surprises.

avengers shawarma scene

At a certain point, it's almost as if the post-credits scenes and hints towards the future of the MCU are a bigger draw than the actual stories of these Marvel films. People were (rightfully) angry about the Eternals spoiler, but it didn't even spoil any major plot points of the actual movie, and was just a spoiler about an extra scene that had no bearing on the rest of the story. It's fun to have a sense of excitement as an audience member while you wait for the post-credits scenes to start, but at a certain point, the mere possibility of a hint towards the future shouldn't be the part of a movie that a person is the most excited to see.

This ties back to the MCU's problem of focusing too much on building the future stories and expanding the world as much as possible at the expense of the present story they're trying to tell. It seems like every new MCU property has to tease the next few entries as much as it can while still trying to tell its own story. At this point, Easter eggs have become a staple of the MCU, and they're really fun when used in moderation, but they're starting to overtake the actual stories themselves. Case in point, it seems like a lot of fans are more excited for the references to past Spider-Man movies in the upcoming No Way Home than they are for any actual development of Peter Parker's character or story.

The post-credits scenes are the perfect way of delivering these Easter eggs in a way that doesn't disrupt the story, which is why Marvel utilizes them for this purpose so much. It's actually a great system, but it's starting to get to the point where people are expecting way too much out of a one-minute scene in the middle of the credits. Some fans will complain about being "disappointed" by the post-credits scenes because they weren't exciting enough, which is a wild statement to make when the point of them is that they're supposed to be fun little moments or hints to something new, not something that actually affects the story (unless the movie is Spider-Man: Far From Home, where the first post-credits scene is actually incredibly important to the story, which in retrospect is such a shocking move for Marvel to make).

spider-man far from home

The post-credits scenes are fun, but they shouldn't become so important that the anticipation for them eclipses the anticipation for the actual movies. When fans get to the point where they're reviewing bonus post-credits scenes on their storytelling ability or excitement factor, maybe the post-credits scenes are doing a little more than they should. It would be hard for them to do after setting such a precedent, but it would almost be nice to see Marvel scale the scenes back a bit, like they were in the early days of the MCU, where the post-credits scenes were just light hints or unnecessary (but fun) scenes that made the audience laugh. Some recent Marvel movies have managed to do this, but a lot of the Phase 4 post-credits scenes are all about setting up the future. Marvel needs to focus more on the present, and on telling the stories they have while they're in them.

NEXT: After Eternals, Who Is Really The Strongest Marvel Character In The MCU?