James Gunn’s Superman isn’t the first project released in the new DC cinematic universe he and DC co-chair/CEO Peter Safran are building — that honor went to Creature Commandos in late 2024. But Superman is certainly a decisive moment for the new DCU, both a statement of intent for DC’s new tone, and a big, splashy testing of the waters, to see whether Gunn’s vision can find a foothold in a cinematic landscape already so thoroughly occupied both by Marvel Studios’ output and by Gunn’s predecessor in the DC-defining role, Zack Snyder.
All of which makes Superman’s post-credits scenes feel more important than they would be otherwise: This is Gunn’s chance to tease the next project in his planned DCU lineup, to build anticipation as the post-credits scenes in his Marvel Studios movies were meant to. Or it’s a chance to define nü-DC movies on his own terms, flouting the credits-scenes fad entirely, and letting his movie stand on its own. Or something else entirely.
Will it surprise anyone to know that Gunn went with the “something else entirely” option? His way of putting his own signature on Superman’s credits scenes is to make them almost joyously dumb. This isn’t a wasted chance, it’s a discarded one — an almost potlatch-esque egregious burning of an opportunity, just to show he can afford to do it his way, not Marvel’s way. Let’s dig in.
What happens in Superman’s mid-credits scene?
Superman’s mid-credits scene only lasts a few seconds. It’s a variant on the image Gunn shared on X in Oct. 2024, with Superman (David Corenswet) silently sitting on the moon with superdog Krypto — except this time, he’s holding Krypto in his arms. Superman’s back is to the camera, and Krypto is peering over his shoulder, directly at the audience, with his paws draped around Superman’s neck.
It’s an “Awwww” moment, except that it lands a little weirdly, because the movie itself portrays Krypto as an endlessly hyperactive troublemaker who can’t sit still for a second, and can’t even be trusted not to casually kill the Kent family cows. Also, the movie’s final sequence has Krypto happily abandoning Superman to go back to his real owner: Supergirl (Milly Alcock), who’s been off partying on other planets.
Sure, a dog that travels at supersonic speeds can obviously check in on his old buddy Supes any time he wants. But when a movie that’s expended so much time on Krypto’s chaotic behavior and lack of real emotional connection to Superman sends the dog away, then brings him back for this uncharacteristically sentimental image that comes out of nowhere… Well, it feels more manipulative than like an actual part of the narrative, and like a commercial for posters, phone cases, and anything else that could have this image slapped on it.
What happens in Superman’s post-credits scene?
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
The post-credits scene is even more of a damp squib. Superman and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) stand together on a Metropolis street, looking at one of the buildings that split apart as Lex Luthor’s rift tore through the city. Mr. Terrific reversed the process and stitched everything back together, but Superman is noticing that the two broken edges of the building don’t quite line up evenly. They both stare at it, with Mr. Terrific clearly getting edgier about it, until Superman awkwardly points out the mismatch, and Terrific throws his hands up and storms away.
Superman mutters to himself, “Darn it! I can be such a jerk sometimes!”
That… does not even really qualify as a gag. Superman expressing frustration with the mildest, most Captain America-worthy expression of frustration imaginable is sort of mildly amusing, though it’s something we saw earlier in the movie, to far more effect. The idea that the Big Blue Boy Scout can’t help but comment on the fact that an entire city ripped apart and then stitched back together isn’t perfectly aligned seems more like something actual jerk Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) would do, to cover up for his own insecurities. Mr. Terrific, for his part, never comes across as this sensitive or volatile elsewhere in the movie.
The scene doesn’t have any real place in the story — it doesn’t fit the tone particularly well, or match up neatly with the characters we get to know throughout the movie. It feels like a mismatch, just like those slightly unaligned building halves.
But there’s still something perversely funny in Gunn using the usually valuable real estate of the post-credit scene not to pay off a gag from earlier in the movie, or to tease Luthor’s inevitable escape and whatever scheme might propel Superman 2, or to set up the Justice Gang’s planned appearance in Gunn’s next release, Peacemaker season 2.
Instead, he spends it on a bit of anti-comedy, a moment so empty and silly that it feels like a statement: He isn’t going to copy Marvel’s stylebook on post-credits scenes, and he isn’t going to pay off anyone who sat through the credits, waiting for more. He’s doing this his own way, and if that leaves viewers a little befuddled, he’s apparently fine with that outcome.
