'Godzilla Vs. Kong' Almost Had A Post-Credits Scene – Here's What Happened To It
Once upon a time, post-credits scenes were a novelty. And then Marvel turned them into a mainstay, and soon, producers started to think that every major blockbuster should have a post-credits scene. Legendary's MonsterVerse series has been trying to follow in Marvel's footsteps with their own shared cinematic universe, and sure enough, most of the films have had post-credits scenes. But there isn't one for Godzilla vs. Kong. And even though we, as a society of moviegoers, should be okay with that, some folks can't let it go and have to immediately ask: "Why is there no Godzilla vs. Kong post-credits scene?" Well, as it turns out, there almost was.
While speaking with Collider, Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard gave some slightly contradictory statements regarding an aborted post-credits scene. According to Wingard, the film came very close to having one – but then they reworked it a bit and put it in the actual body of the film. He doesn't specify what the scene is, exactly, but he first stresses that it was not intended to set up the next movie, as so many post-credits scenes do these days.
"We actually did shoot a post-credits scene but we ended up using it in the movie. Because we shot it while we were making the film and we realized we needed a scene at the end of the movie," Wingard said. "We had this footage, and we were like 'wait a minute, if we actually just change this thing about this footage we originally shot for a post-credit thing, we can actually use it in the movie.' And it's really effective. We kind of just sacrificed our post-credits scene. Which makes sense, because honestly, it's not even like that post-credits scene is teeing up anything specific. It wasn't like saying 'this is definitively where the MonsterVerse is going [next].'"
But then, weirdly enough, Wingard then contradicted himself by saying the nixed post-credits scene actually would have set a new movie up – but there was some concern about backing the MonsterVerse into a corner. "Well, I take that back, it would've done something, but it would've backed us into a corner," said the filmmaker. "I think the MonsterVerse is at a crossroads where audiences need to vote if they want to see another one of these films before they continue. I think that's a really healthy thing. We've gone through a decade or so of the rise of the universe movies, the versus movies. Obviously, Marvel does it best. But at the end of the day, I don't think these movies should imitate Marvel, necessarily. They should be their own thing. So I think it's better not to back yourself into a corner to a certain degree. It makes sense that we don't have a post-credits scene."
I agree with Wingard 100% here. Yes, we all know the Marvel formula works exceedingly well for Marvel. But that doesn't mean other studios need to rush to copy it, because it's not going to be as successful for everyone else. We all remember what happened to Universal's Dark Universe, right?