The crime is...there isn't one.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, starring Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, and Johnny Depp, comes to theaters this weekend, hoping to be another successful chapter in JK Rowling’s wizarding cinematic universe. And once you have enjoyed 134 minutes of young Dumbledore teaming up with Newt Scamander to take down the titular dark wizard, you will likely find yourself faced with one question: Is there a scene after the credits? After all, sitting around watching the credits roll can be a bore but it might be worth the wait if the movie ends up giving fans an Easter egg or hints at what the sequel might be about. Turns out, the greatest crime of Grindelwald is a lack of a post-credits scene. Harry Potter movies have done this before, but tragically, not recently.
While the first Fantastic Beasts movie did not have a scene after the credits, there have been post-credit scenes in two of the Harry Potter films. In Chamber of Secrets, we return to Flourish & Blotts where Gilderoy Lockhart’s newest book is on display, titled Who Am I? The book features the obliviated former professor on the cover, looking befuddled. Prisoner of Azkaban does not have a traditional post-credits scene but it does feature Harry saying, “Mischief managed” leading to the Marauder’s Map end credits.
So does the second chapter in the Fantastic Beasts franchise have a post-credits scene you should stick around for?
Without giving away any plot details or spoiling anything about the movie, we will say that Crimes of Grindelwald bucks the recent blockbuster trend and does not have any scenes after credits. Once the movie is over, it’s truly over, meaning instead of having to sit around for an extra five minutes for a 30-second clip, viewers you can make a beeline for the door the minute the movie ends.
Post-credit scenes have become the norm over the past decade and while the Fantastic Beasts sequel has been getting mixed reviews from critics – it currently has a 51 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes – the newest entry into the Halloween canon does deserve credit for abandoning this annoying, completely unnecessary trend and letting the movie end when it’s supposed to.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is out in theaters now.
