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End-credits have become a key part of superhero storytelling in movies and television, but Superman writer/director James Gunn says he's been burned by it before - and has the regrets to prove it. Namely, the introduction of Adam Warlock in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It came up when Phase Hero's Brandon Davis asked the writer/director about post-credits scenes.

"If you look at my credits scene on the Marvel movies, the one time I fucked myself was when I put Adam Warlock in because then I'm like, 'Oh shit, now I gotta put Adam Warlock in the next movie,' which actually was a pain in the ass."

Gunn teased Warlock in the post-credits scene to 2017's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and formally introduced the character (as played by Will Poulter) in 2023's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Gunn said he learned from that, "So I'm not going to set up whole universes with end credits scene. I love giving audiences who sit through all of the end-credits scenes but I'd rather it be something that's fun for fans and not necessarily, 'Hey, we're setting up the whole next part of the universe!'"

That's a curious statement given the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 end-credits scene which set up a new itteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy team after the departure of most of the founding members, and set-up Chris Pratt's Star-Lord as living on Earth.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• With Daredevil, and spinoffs from Black Panther, What If, and more, Marvel Studios' 2025 Disney+ slate is bigger than ever, and that might be a big deal for the future
• If Kraven the Hunter flops, Sony's Spider-Man Universe could look for a Marvel-assisted reboot
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.