14 Post-Credits Scenes That Teased Movies That Were Never Released

It used to be that when a movie ended, the audience shuffled out of the theater without watching the credits. Things started to change in the 1980s, with post-credits scenes gaining popularity in films like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Back to the Future Part II.” Conversely, movies like “History of the World: Part 1” featured a post-credits scene that jokingly teased a sequel for which plans didn’t even exist.

Showing a scene after a movie ends has been around for years, but Marvel Studios certainly perfected the post-credits tease. Unfortunately, making a movie and inserting a post-credits scene that teases a follow-up doesn’t always work out. While studios hope for box office success, the audience doesn’t always follow the plan and the reality of the movie business often rears its ugly head, dashing all hopes of a follow-up. It’s even happened in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with several MCU post-credits scenes that didn’t pay off.

Marvel movies aren’t the only ones to tease something without delivering, and in fact it’s been happening somewhat regularly since the late 1980s. Tentpole films that studio execs likely thought would dominate the marketplace sometimes do the opposite, making a lot of big-budget movies that should have been hits guilty of deploying post-credits scenes that didn’t go anywhere.

Throughout much of the 1980s, the “He-Man” toy line and associated comics, animated series, and film dominated geek culture. In 1987, a live-action movie starring Dolph Lundgren in the role of He-Man was released, and while the film includes many of the characters featured throughout the franchise, it takes place mostly on Earth while focusing on two teenagers.

The movie ends in a manner you’d expect: Skeletor (Frank Langella) is defeated after He-Man throws him into a pit, seemingly killing him. He-Man is proclaimed a hero, and the kids’ lives are made the better for their adventure, thanks to some time travel shenanigans. It’s the sort of feel-good movie ending you’d expect to find in 1980s American cinema. But “Masters of the Universe” also features a brief post-credits scene that’s less than 10 seconds in length.

The post-credits scene proves He-Man didn’t kill Skeletor, whose head emerges from the water before he breaks the fourth wall to let the audience know, “I’ll be back!” Unfortunately for the few fans of the film, it never happened. “Masters of the Universe” absolutely bombed and is widely considered to be an awful movie, which the franchise somehow managed to survive.

The “Street Fighter” series includes some of the most popular fighting games of all time. The first title launched in 1987 and was a massive hit, so a sequel, “Street Fighter II,” soon followed. It became even more successful than its predecessor, spawning two films released in 1994. The first was “Street Fighter: The Animated Movie,” and the second was the live-action “Street Fighter.”

“Street Fighter” stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raúl Juliá as Colonel Guile and General M. Bison, respectively. The movie’s tone is fairly campy and more than a bit cheesy at times. It also isn’t exactly faithful to the source material, but this didn’t matter. The film managed to rake in enough cash to support a sequel, and one was teased in a post-credits scene.

The camera sweeps over debris and bodies as a computer’s voice reveals that a solar battery is online. It ends with General Bison’s fist punching out of the wreckage while a computer screen menu offers “world domination” as his next goal. If that doesn’t tee up a sequel, nothing does, but it never manifested. One was in the works in 2003, but the project died during development.

The “Fantastic Four” franchise has an uneven track record at the box office, but 20th Century Fox had a hit on its hands with 2005’s “Fantastic Four.” That movie garnered a sequel, 2007’s “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which sees the Silver Surfer escort Galactus (inexplicably depicted as a dark cloud) to Earth to consume the planet.

The Fantastic Four step in to stop the World Devourer, and the film concludes with the Surfer flying into Galactus, seemingly destroying it and himself. However, the movie ends with a post-credits scene that shows the Surfer floating lifelessly in space — until his eyes open for a moment before moving out of frame. The Surfer’s iconic surfboard then returns to life and shoots over to collect its rider. 

This scene set up two projects: a sequel starring this iteration of the Fantastic Four and a solo Silver Surfer movie. Both were canceled due to the less-than-great box office and critical performance for “Rise of the Silver Surfer,” confirming the films as two of the canceled Marvel movies we’ll never get to see.

2006’s “Crank” and its sequel, 2009’s “Crank: High Voltage,” are two of the most over-the-top, violent movies of the 21st century. They star Jason Statham as lead Chev Chelios, who, in the first film, has to keep his adrenaline going or he’ll die. The movie ends with him falling from a helicopter and surviving. The second has a similar plot; only Chelios’ heart has been removed and replaced with an artificial one.

He needs to electrocute himself as much as possible, or the artificial heart will stop functioning. He takes a lot of damage along the way, and the movie ends with him engulfed in flames, flipping the bird at the camera. What follows is a series of vignettes showing Chelios being put back together during the credits, which leads to a post-credits scene.

Chelios is apparently dead, but the camera focuses on his face and zooms in as his eyes open. This left the door open for a sequel, which was initially in the works for a potential 2013 release. Unfortunately, the project never fully manifested, and since so much time has passed, it’s unlikely to come to fruition at this point.

The DC Extended Universe launched in 2013 with “Man of Steel,” but that wasn’t always the plan. Initially, 2011’s “Green Lantern” was meant to launch the DCEU, and a sequel was already in the works a year before its release. The film includes as much Green Lantern lore and characters as possible, and it connected to the wider DC universe in a number of ways that could have helped firmly establish that mythology onscreen.

Unfortunately for its star, Ryan Reynolds, and “Green Lantern” comic book fans, the film was a poor adaptation. It relied too heavily on CGI — including Reynolds’ costume — and it jammed in multiple stories from several decades of source material. The film ends with Hal Jordan (Reynolds) tricking Parallax into the Sun’s gravity, destroying it, after which the newest Green Lantern is hailed as a hero.

But a mid-credits scene shows Hal’s mentor Sinestro (Mark Strong) placing a yellow power ring on his finger after removing the green power ring. His costume color changes to the yellow worn by the Sinestro Corps in the comics, which absolutely sets up a sequel. “Green Lantern” ended up bombing critically and financially, ensuring that no such follow-up would ever arrive.

Both “The Amazing Spider-Man” and its sequel filmed post-credits scenes that tease future projects that never materialized. The first movie ends with Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) defeating Curt Connors, aka the Lizard (Rhys Ifans), who returns to his human form and is incarcerated. The post-credits scene shows him in confinement, but a shadowy figure appears, asking if he’s told Peter Parker the truth about his father.

Connors reveals that he’s kept the secret and Peter should be left alone. The man in the shadows turns up again in a post-credits scene for “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” which was deleted from the theatrical release and replaced with a trailer for “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” The original clip includes the same man walking by a series of cells in some kind of lab, in which the frozen head of Norman Osborn (Chris Cooper) can be seen.

“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” doesn’t answer many questions related to the post-credits scene from the first one, and turned out to be the final film in the “ASM” franchise. More were planned, including a “Sinister Six” movie. But due to how poorly “The Amazing Spider-Man” and its sequel were received, Sony decided to make villain films instead, while letting Spider-Man join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The “Terminator” franchise hasn’t produced as many hits as some might like, so “Terminator Genisys” rebooted the series in 2015 and was planned to be the first in a trilogy of new “Terminator” films. The movie reimagines how things in the “Terminator” universe would look by ignoring all of the sequels and the television series.

Unfortunately for fans, “Genisys” bombed critically, though it did make a decent sum of money. But even though the moviegoing public seemed burned out on the franchise, the studio planned to see its trilogy through and included a mid-credits scene. The film ends with a massive explosion destroying the Genisys computer, while the mid-credits scene shows the destroyed facility as the camera pans over the debris. 

The camera takes the viewer deeper inside to reveal that the Genisys computer core is still operational. Just before the screen cuts to black, you can see it begin to project a hologram, teasing a follow-up that never made it out of the development stage. Two sequels were planned, but were canceled because of the poor performance of “Genisys” in North America. Another reimagining, “Terminator: Dark Fate,” similarly underperformed, so it’s unlikely Hollywood will make another “Terminator” movie anytime soon.

The “Ghostbusters” franchise sat around collecting dust for decades before the green light was finally given for a new movie that was released in 2016. The film is similarly structured to the original films, but instead of four men, the Ghostbusters are women played by Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. Outside of the casting changes, the movie looks and feels like a “Ghostbusters” film.

While all of the actors involved gave outstanding comedic performances, some in the viewing public weren’t exactly pleased with the gender-bending cast. The film suffered as a result, as negative word of mouth trashed “Ghostbusters” because of the female ensemble. The film was meant to launch a new era for the franchise, including a sequel that was teased in the post-credits scene.

As the film ends, the Ghostbusters fight the bad guy, defeating him and moving into a familiar-looking building in New York City. The post-credits scene shows the Ghostbusters in their new firehouse as they look over their equipment. Patty (Jones) listens to a recording and mentions that she’s heard something interesting, asking, “What’s Zuul?” This teases the original “Ghostbusters” villain, but the sequel was killed due to the movie’s poor box office performance.

“Justice League” is an interesting movie because there are two versions of the same film made by two different directors. The post-credits scene that teases a follow-up which never arrived can be found in the 2017 cut, which was completed by Joss Whedon after director Zack Snyder temporarily stepped away. 

The film pits the titutar team against Darkseid henchman Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), ending when the Justice League defeats him and establishes their own base of operations. The film’s post-credits scene begins with the reveal that Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) has escaped from prison. He then meets with Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello) on a yacht, where he recruits him into a league of their own.

This seemingly establishes the beginnings of the Legion of Doom, which originated in the “Challenge of the Superfriends” animated series in 1978. “Justice League” was an incredibly expensive movie, costing more than $300 million to produce. While it made over $660 million its break-even point was so high that Warner Bros. was out $60 million. There was no chance of a sequel after such losses, but Warner Bros. did pay for Snyder to finish his own version, which cost an additional $70 million.

The “Transformers” film franchise began to wane in popularity by the time the fifth film, “Transformers: The Last Knight,” came around in 2017, and the film’s performance didn’t help. While it made over $605 million at the global box office off a production budget of around $217 million, Paramount Pictures ended up losing money due to distribution and marketing costs to the tune of around $100 million.

Following the continuity laid out in the first film back in 2007, “The Last Knight” ends with the Autobots, humans, and Dragonstorm fighting against Cybertron as it ravages the planet. They defeat the evil Decepticons, and Bumblebee kills Quintessa, saving both the Earth and Cybertron, while the Transformers leave Earth to rebuild their homeworld.

The post-credits scene shows that Quintessa hasn’t just survived but has disguised herself as a human (Gemma Chan) and offers to help some human scientists destroy Unicron. While this established a sequel, and one was planned, the film’s poor performance nearly killed the franchise. The sequel was scrapped in favor of a prequel, “Bumblebee,” which was released the following year.

The “Eternals” isn’t the most popular film in the MCU, but it incorporates many characters who may return … just not in a sequel. Still, the film ends in a manner that suggests a sequel will be made, as it concludes with Sersi (Gemma Chan) being taken away by Arishem to face judgment for the death of Tiamut, the Celestial growing within the Earth.

That leaves the door open for more, and there were two post-credits scenes promising future films. The first shows the Eternals flying through space when they’re met by their fellow Eternal Eros (Harry Styles) and Pip the Troll (Patton Oswalt), suggesting a wider expansion into Marvel’s cosmic universe. This scene establishes a sequel that was in the works, but Marvel Studios decided to cancel it.

The second post-credits scene sets up two more movies that will likely never be made. In it, Dane Whitman (Kit Harrington) stares at his family’s sword, reticent to touch it. Should he do so, he’ll take on the mantle of the Black Knight. He resolves to grab the sword, but is stopped by the off-camera voice of Blade (Mahershala Ali), asking if he’s ready — and setting up the now reportedly-canceled “Blade” film.

The DCEU was already starting to wind down when Dwayne Johnson played the lead role in “Black Adam.” Johnson pushed hard to work his film into the wider DCEU, promoting his movie as a game-changer for the franchise. The film casts Adam as an antihero who stands up against the Justice Society’s members before ultimately aiding them to stop a greater evil and save the people of Kahndaq.

The mid-credits scene in “Black Adam” shows Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) instructing Adam not to leave Kahndaq and sends Superman (Henry Cavill) to have a little pow-wow with the overpowered villain-turned-antihero. When the movie came out, the fate of the DCEU remained in limbo, and seeing Cavill reprise his role as the Man of Steel offered hope to his fans, but it wasn’t meant to be.

“Black Adam” ends in such a way that suggests it will result in additional movies in the DCEU, but the film’s poor performance ensured it didn’t break even at the box office. The sequel, which could have included a Superman or Batman vs. Black Adam showdown, was canceled, and the DCEU petered out with only four more movies before being abandoned for James Gunn’s DC Universe (DCU).

Sony’s Spider-Man-adjacent movies, starring villains associated with the character, haven’t done particularly well with audiences, critics, or at the box office. Still, “Morbius” had a lot going for it on paper, with an impressive cast that included Jared Leto, Matt Smith, and Adria Arjona. The movie also includes two mid-credits scenes that are tied together. 

In the first, an interdimensional rift opens above New York City, and Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) finds himself transported from a jail in the MCU to one in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. He’s initially interested in his newfound predicament, hoping the food is better. Toomes is then released, as his presence is inexplicable, which leads to the second scene.

This features Morbius driving along a deserted road at night and stopping by an old billboard, where he’s met by Toomes in his Vulture gear. It sets up a potential sequel that would likely combine characters from the MCU and Sony’s films, but “Morbius” was an epic bomb, and Sony opted not to continue with a sequel, preferring instead to move forward with “Kraven the Hunter” before killing all planned sequels and spinoffs altogether.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” takes the titular heroes and two others into the Quantum Realm, where they meet and fight Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). The film establishes Kang’s origin and ties it to Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), making her partly responsible for his rise to power. He was sent to the Quantum Realm as punishment by other Kang variants, and she unwittingly helps him escape.

The film concludes with a massive battle between the forces of good against Kang and his minions, but a mid-credits scene introduces the Council of Kangs, which consists of variants of the Conqueror from every reality. They discuss the status of the so-called “Exile,” referring to the Kang defeated by Ant-Man and his pals, while entering an arena filled with literally hundreds of Kangs all bent on revenge.

The plan wasn’t to make another “Ant-Man” movie; instead, the scene establishes the basis for “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” but Marvel canceled the project. The studio began moving away from Kang as a major villain, preferring to focus instead on Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.). Majors’ legal problems gave the studio an out, ensuring that the Kang problem became a footnote in the second season of “Loki.”