Does It: Chapter Two Have A Post-Credits Scene?

Post-credits sequences are all the rage in modern mainstream cinema (thanks, Marvel), and for any property that's a multi-film series, they're all but expected. 2017's It: Chapter One was one of the best horror flicks of recent years, and It: Chapter Two ostensibly concludes the story — but does it have a post-credits scene?

Well, let's defer to director Andy Muschietti, who had been keen to include just such a scene in the first film. It would have introduced us to Jessica Chastain's adult Beverly Marsh, which would have been a nice little tease for Chapter Two; unfortunately, scheduling conflicts prevented it from being put to film.

While discussing the stinger that got away, however, Muschietti made it plain that It: Chapter Two will contain no post-credits sequence, for a pretty sound reason: it's the end of the story. "Post-credit scenes... normally have a very distinct function, which is [teasing] people about a future movie," Muschietti explained to the Huffington Post. "But yeah, this is, like, the idea that this is over."

This is probably as it should be, because Muschietti's one-two punch is one of the greatest Stephen King adaptations ever — at once a faithful retelling and an original vision of what many fans believe to be the Master of Horror's greatest work. But considering that It: Chapter One is the highest-grossing horror movie in history, and that there's no way on Earth that Chapter Two won't do similarly bonkers box office, it's all but certain that the idea of It: Chapter Three has been floated early and often around the offices of studio New Line.

However, this would require tinkering with the virtual perfection that is King's narrative, which seems like a mighty irresponsible thing to do — unless maybe, just maybe, the author could be convinced to take part. (Spoiler alert: no way. King has said before that he'll never write about Pennywise again, because even he is freaked out by the malevolent clown.)

At any rate, once the credits start rolling on It: Chapter Two, feel free to vamoose; you won't need any prodding, because even some of the critics who loved the film have been a tad put off by its bladder-testing run time of nearly three hours. There's no better example of a flick that simply doesn't need anything extra after the credits... but hey, since there are mega-dollars involved and it's New Line we're talking about, what if there were? We're thinking crossover. Stay with us here.

Picture it: the final battle is over and the Losers are going their separate ways as an odd calm settles over Derry. Below the streets, slouching through the sewers, we see Pennywise: makeup all smeared, pom-poms in tatters, grungy, defeated. He's muttering something to himself about those damn kids (yes, we know they're adults now; he'll always see them as kids, he's 5 billion years old) when suddenly, a gravelly voice intrudes upon the darkness.

"You look like crap, clown," it says, and Pennywise pauses. He shakes his head and squints, peering into the gloom, and then screws up his face like he's just tasted something bad. "You," he says, and begins trudging through the filth again. "I don't wanna hear it from you, you burned-up freak."

We then see a familiar silhouette: fedora, ratty sweater, extremely long, pointy fingers on one hand... gasp, it's Freddy Krueger! "You really wanna give those brats what-for?" he asks, thoughtfully drumming his finger-knives on his chest. "Because you know, I'm... pretty good at that."

BOOM! This stuff writes itself (well, it does if you're us). Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go wait for a phone call. It might be from a breathless New Line executive offering to cut us a ginormous check, it might be from a highly irate Stephen King... we'll go trip-trapping over that bridge when we come to it.