Hawkeye’s Cut Post Credits Scene Would Have Been Perfect

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Hawkeye.

A scrapped post-credits scene originally intended for Hawkeye would have perfectly played off a Tracksuit Mafia side plot, and also would have set an important precedence for the MCU’s stingers. Instead of including two additional scenes in its credits, Hawkeye only featured one mid-credits stinger: the extended version of the song “Save the City” from Rogers: The Musical. The number had already been teased in Hawkeye’s premiere episode when Clint Barton’s family saw the musical in New York, and the mid-credits scene gave viewers a full taste of the project. While Hawkeye’s deleted post-credits Tracksuit Mafia scene wouldn’t have done any more to set up the future than the included mid-credits clip, it would have been more satisfactory in actually connecting to an unanswered plot point.

Wrapping after only 6 episodes, Hawkeye was a quick look at Clint Barton’s life post-Blip as he mentored the MCU’s newest bow-and-arrow-equipped hero Kate Bishop. Featuring goofy subplots like the Tracksuit Mafia’s ridiculous slang and a troupe of LARPers, the Disney+ series is one of the MCU’s best examples of not taking itself so seriously but still producing an engaging story. With such a short series, Hawkeye also left plenty of unanswered questions in its finale, such as whether Kingpin survived, where Yelena Belova was headed, if Laura Barton is Mockingbird, and what happened to the Tracksuit Mafia bros that were shrunken by an arrow and carried off by an owl.

Hawkeye’s VFX artist Elaina Scott revealed that the show’s deleted credits scenes would have shown the owl taking the shrunken Tracksuit Mafia bros to its nest, thus answering where on Earth the bird took them. The missing Hawkeye post-credits scene was a perfect way to let the story breathe, thus not falling into the trap of immediately leaving the current plot and jumping ahead to the next. The MCU hardly ever allows viewers the chance to decompress after the show or film they just watched, as strategically, they’re always left pondering the future of the universe and upcoming stories instead. In an unprecedented change, Hawkeye’s used and deleted credits scenes departed from MCU tradition by giving no major tease to the next film or series.

The MCU’s disappointing end-credits scenes hold far too high of expectations in terms of future set-ups, which is part of why Spider-Man: No Way Home’s credits have been subject to controversy. No Way Home’s Venom stinger and Doctor Strange 2 trailer were criticized for not being clever enough set-ups for the universe, but in such an emotionally-charged, climactic film, No Way Home may have been better off with credits scenes similar to Hawkeye’s cut Tracksuit Mafia clip. The scene would have been a goofy continuation of Hawkeye’s story, and No Way Home might’ve benefitted from a similarly lighthearted clip of the characters who just experienced such a profound change in their lives.

Hawkeye’s deleted owl scene is a perfect callback to how moviegoers remember mid-credits stingers before the MCU set the precedence for story-progressing snippets. Considering fans expect much more from credits scenes of MCU movies, Marvel’s Disney+ TV shows are the perfect avenues for post-credits gag scenes of days past. Hawkeye, overall, had lower stakes than previous shows like WandaVision, Loki, or Falcon and the Winter Soldier, thus making it the best place for the fun credits content that Marvel rarely reverts to.

The MCU doesn’t always need to set up future content in its credits scenes. While such scenes have made it much more common for moviegoers to sit through credits and honor the people that worked on the project, MCU’s credits stingers hold unnecessarily high expectations. The actual films and series are the best places to set up future storylines, or through teasers on alternate platforms. Although some have called its after-credits scene disappointing, Hawkeye is a significant example of the MCU allowing itself to have fun with its credits scenes and continue on the same story it was telling instead of simply striking up conversations for new projects. The MCU tends to leave side stories unresolved or mysterious, and Hawkeye’s original post-credits owl scene would have been the perfect vehicle for answering the finale episode’s weirdest subplot.

About The Author

Jordan Williams
(814 Articles Published)

Jordan Williams is a Movie/TV Feature Senior Staff Writer for Screen Rant. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2020 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies.

Jordan is based in Seattle, Washington and enjoys exploring the natural beauty the PNW has to offer. She runs on coffee and classic movies, taking pride in having watched every film on AFI’s 100 Greatest Films list and every Best Picture Oscar winner.

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