I liked the first Howard film and a rebooted Howard would be great. I may have to go see GotG after all.
That depends on Marvel's perception of their current audience--which is not as into the kind of social satire Marvel fans were exposed to in the 1970s. Big noises, geek-off material and high school-level comic relief is the order of the day, so I would say vintage Howard should not be expected.
I think Howard's apearance in GotG was just a fun gag, not an indication of future plans of Marvel Studios.
^I hope not. Marvel's brave enough to do a talking raccoon, why not Howard? Besides, GotG could have used a number of post credit scenes to set up the next MCU movie (like all of the rest). It seems pointless to show Howard just to appease a small fan base. (no point in spoiling this, as it's part of the discussion now)
Why not? Iron Man 3 ended with a joke that wrapped up the movie by showing us that Stark was talking to Banner the whole time. Thor 2 ended with a Norse dog-creature chasing a bird. This could be the same, ending a very fun and funny movie on the same fun and funny note with nothing more to look into. As with the other phase 2 movies, there's no rule that these set up anything. That was a phase 1 thing. We've moved on.
I like how the first person who posted it used spoiler tags and then everyone promptly ignored it. I took it as a joke. I think that's appropriate. He's part of the universe, but there are other characters to focus on. Interestingly, though, they've been moving towards two stingers where one can be humorous (except The Winter Soldier, even there they wanted no part of humor). I had expected two scenes - one humorous and one teasing something else (I remember early pictures had SHIELD vans in the film, although I'm not sure how that would fit).
It's just as well. On the other hand, the real Howard was just originally a bit of fun-- who was brought back by popular demand.
I think it depends. Iron Man 3 and GOTG seem connected to the main plot and were determined by the director or writer (James Gunn seems behind the GOTG one, certainly). On the other hand, the director of Thor: TDW was angry at that mid-credits sequence because he thought it ruined the tone of his movie. Clearly he had no control over it. A lot of them were determined by Whedon. It seems that their purpose has branched out so they're no longer just teasing the next movie. Given that, the ones that aren't to point to future movies are probably under the control of the director of that movie. How they determine how to do it is probably a collective decision based on need at that moment.
^And the stingers for Iron Man 2 and Captain America: The First Avenger were just scenes from the next movie tacked onto the end. This is a timely announcement... Marvel re-releases (in print and digital) the previously out-of-print Howard the Duck omnibus.
I wouldn't say it's so much that the purpose has branched out, as that they added a second scene with a different purpose. Phase One movies (except for The Avengers) all had setup for future movies, end of story. It's only from The Avengers onward that we started seeing two sometimes. From that point, the mid-credit one if present was future setup (Thanos, the Collector, the Age of Miracles); and the post-credit one was a tag back to the main picture. I saw an interview with Kevin Feige earlier today; basically, even though they aren't necessarily doing the "this is all connected" buildup from Phase One anymore, they feel obligated to do something to reward the viewers responding to their training from Phase One and staying.
This was going to have two joke sequences after the credits start, though. But the first scene was moved to the end of the movie instead because the audience loved it so much they didn't want to take the chance on anyone missing it.