Hawkeye Composer Reveals Bittersweet Feelings Toward Post-Credit Scene

Marvel Studios has become known for teasing its upcoming movies and TV shows in their post-credit scenes, so much so that when Hawkeye ended with an additional scene that featured a full rendition of “Save the City” from the series’ Broadway show, Rogers: The Musical, fans were quick to air their disappointment. The in-universe show within a show made quite a stir when it made its debut earlier in the series, and with the song being conceived by real Broadway composers Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman it would be unkind not to feature the full song somewhere. As there would probably be nowhere for the song to appear in the future, the obvious place for this to sit was as a little bit extra at the end of the series as a nice little Christmas gift. In a new interview, Shaiman revealed how developing the fake musical and the fan response has been a bittersweet experience.

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“I mean, it was really a one-off,” Shaiman said in an interview with Inverse. “It was just there. It was an idea that almost came up as a joke one day and then they didn’t let it go. It just kept coming up. But it was just to serve that one purpose of Hawkeye being in New York. In the original script, they sent us there was much more. There was a press agent who greeted him at the door and he was looking around saying, ‘Where’s everybody else?’ And she had to kind of tell him, ‘Well, you’re the only one who actually has agreed to show up.’ He felt funny also about that, that none of the other Avengers were there.

“The hard part was writing a song that had to be something that Hawkeye or people who don’t like musicals would roll their eyes at. It’s been tough because we did our job well, and that means there are a lot of people who were like, what is this? I understand that there are a lot of people who would’ve expected and wanted the post-credits scene to be some new kernel of what’s gonna happen next in the MCU. I completely get it. But it has been tough to know that by doing our job well, we made something that not everyone likes. It’s been bittersweet almost, but to be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is crazy.”

While there were still plenty of fans who were happy with the inclusion of the scene, director Rhys Thomas did previously reveal that he was in the dark over what would be in the post-credit scene until he was told. He said, “In the tradition that Marvel’s known for, I was waiting for what that was going to be. Yeah, they made the decision to put the musical at the end there, which honestly, I was slightly conflicted about because like a fan, I’m like, ‘The people, they want to see something, they want to know what’s coming next. Is this going to disappoint?’ In all fairness again, to the team, it’s like, no, no, no, it’s Christmas, it’s light. We’ve got so much blood in this episode, it’s just fun. It’s a fun release at the end, and it’s a nice way to send people off.”

Fans were not left completely empty-handed when it comes to teases for the future, as there were plenty of those in the Hawkeye finale itself, so all in all there have been much less impactful post-credit scenes over the last 14 years and at least this one was, as Thomas said, just a fun release, as with some darker entries in the MCU approaching, it may be one of the few times that something light-hearted and inconsequential is possible.

About The Author

Anthony Lund
(1402 Articles Published)

Anthony Lund is an author, songwriter and puppeteer from a small village in the U.K. with an avid love of all genres of TV and film. As well as keeping up with the lastest entertainment news and writing about it for MovieWeb, he works as a video editor, voice over artist and production designer. A child of the 80s, he is the owner of almost 2000 books, more toys than his children, three Warner Bros. Store Gremlins and a production used Howard The Duck movie script.

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