Fear Street Credit Scene Explained by Director Leigh Janiak

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for the Fear Street trilogy.]We have hit the end of the Fear Street trilogy on Netflix, a storytelling feat that explores the history of Shadyside by moving back in time from 1994 to 1666 to reveal the effect past choices have on future generations of Shadysiders. By rolling with that specific storytelling format, it gave director Leigh Janiak the unique opportunity to kill off characters in the first two installments – 1994 and 1978 – but then to bring those actors back for film three, 1666.

No, Julia Rehwald’s Kate doesn’t live on nor does McCabe Slye’s Tommy Slater get a second chance at life, but those two plus more do get the opportunity to reappear in new roles, which is great for two main reasons. One, the Fear Street movies feature a phenomenal ensemble and the more we see of them on screen the better. Two, their return bolsters the importance of lifting this curse.

We already released a lengthy Collider Witching Hour chat with Janiak focusing on Fear Street 1994, but now that the full trilogy is available to watch on Netflix, it’s time to discuss Fear Street 1666, specifically how Janiak pinpointed the appropriate balance between making these 1666 characters unique individuals, but also ones with ties to their 1994 or 1978 counterparts. She explained how she tackled it:

“It really made sense I think that we got to see these characters from the different movies back in 1666 because it felt like what we were trying to do in 1666 was show all of the ways that things went wrong with similar relationships or similar interactions and then later on, hopefully in the 70s and then the 90s, kind of have a chance to right those wrongs. So that was the core idea behind using the actors over and over again. There’s little things like characters that live in 1666 die in the other movies or characters that die in the earlier ones live in this one, so there was a whole kind of thing of history repeating itself and again, wrongs being righted.”

Throughout the Fear Street films, we get to meet a whole bunch of Shadyside Killers. There’s The Pastor (Michael Chandler), Skull Mask (Noah Garrett), the Shame Killer (Keil Oakley Zepernick), Ruby Lane (Jordyn Dinatale), Billy Barker (Emily Brobst), The Milkman (Kevin Waterman) and, of course, The Nightwing Killer (Lloyd Pitts). But there is one killer featured in the Fear Street 1994 opening credits that we never see on screen otherwise; it’s The Humpty Dumpty Killer. Who exactly is this killer? Janiak explained:

“I love the Humpty Dumpty killer! He was in the original script. I put him in there and I kind of had this really interesting backstory that I started thinking about, about a guy that was killing people and taking their body parts and making new people out of them. Like sewing things together, like Humpty Dumpty putting things back together again. And then I just didn’t quite know what era it made sense for him to live in and what it was, and I was kind of like secretly, there’s a lot to have happen here. Maybe we’ll deal with this in another movie.”

Speaking of future films, I’m willing to bet there’s one burning question at the very, very end of the Fear Street trilogy; will there be more? Fear Street 1666 doesn’t just end with Deena (Kiana Madeira) and co. living happily ever after. Janiak made the choice to include a mid-credits scene that shows someone taking the book from beneath the mall. Is that just a fun thing to include at the end of the films, or should we be taking that tease more seriously? Do Janiak and her team have ideas for more Fear Street films? Here’s what she said:

“Oh, no, no, no. We have ideas. We have ideas.”

As a huge fan of Janiak’s Fear Street movies, there couldn’t have been a better answer to that question! Hopefully Netflix will make some moves soon regarding the future of the franchise, but in the meantime, do continue to celebrate the Fear Street movies with us through a whole slew of interviews, like the one below: