Here's Why Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Doesn't Have A Post-Credits Scene
"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is filled to the brim with so much superhero action, characters, art styles, and dimension-hopping shenanigans that you might not have even noticed the lack of a signature comic book movie staple: the post-credits scene.
I myself honestly forgot to look out for one, but I think that was because the absolutely brutal cliffhanger left me reeling and I figured that "Aw, c'mon!" feeling was what the filmmakers wanted us to walk out of the theater with.
Turns out I was partially right. In an interview with IndieWire, producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller talked about their original plan for a post-credits scene, and one of the main reasons they nixed it was because it was "hard to beat where we left off." Their original idea for a post-credits scene required a bit of a set-up for the pay-off to work and that further complicated the idea. It's also worth mentioning the two scenes sound like nods of the hat to another famous superhero movie.
Spot gets his groove back
If they did give us their original post-credits scene, it would have also required a prior scene where we see Spot (Jason Schwartzman) at his most pathetic. As a character, he just wants to be taken seriously and isn't much of a threat ... at first. What the creative team wanted to do was have a sequence where Spot is at a bar filled with Spidey villains and trying to fit in. He goes to order a drink, but he can't because no one notices him.
He ultimately steals a drink, but the second he downs it the liquid leaks out of all of his holes, much to the entertainment of the "real" villains who point and laugh.
That's the set-up.
The pay-off would have been a post-credits scene that sees Spot returning to that bar, now one of the most powerful (and vengeful) beings in the universe. This time he gets noticed when he dispatches all the supervillain bullies who laughed at him earlier. Alan Hawkins, head of character animation, called this one-two punch one of his favorite things they all came up with, but ultimately couldn't dedicate the time needed to pull it off.
If this sounds a little familiar, picture Christopher Reeve putting those bullies in their places because that's exactly what happens at the end of "Superman II." After Clark gives up his powers for love, he gets beaten up by a trucker in a diner. When he gets his powers back, he pays that trucker a little visit. It might be a bit out of character for Supes, but I always enjoyed it.
Ultimately, "Across the Spider-Verse" didn't need these scenes, but I do wish they would have found a way to fit them in.