Most of the vampire hunting in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is done by Abraham Lincoln. But maybe the movie is taking a page from the Buffy version of the vampire hunt, because the cycle is destined to repeat itself. Very minor spoiler: in the very last scene of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, we see that another vampire hunter is about to be recruited for the good fight. But we don’t see much. It’s just the back of a head, and the repetition of the dialogue that preceded Lincoln’s attempt to kill a vampire without knowing how to do it properly.
So who is that man? It’s the screenwriter and the author of the novel on which the movie is based, Seth Grahame-Smith. We see him watching footage of a military helicopter landing by The White House, getting drunk in a bar and sending a regretful text message about the mystery thing he is about to do—right before he, like Lincoln before him, drops his gun and shows his cards to vampire-hunting guru Henry Sturgess, played by Dominic Cooper. But who exactly is Grahame-Smith supposed to be?
Now here are some real spoilers: Grahame-Smith spoke to TIME last week about the process of adapting his novel for the screen and, because we promised not to give it away before the movie came out, he answered some burning questions about the scene.
(VIDEO: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter)
TIME: Was that next vampire hunter supposed to be anyone specific?
Grahame-Smith: No, it wasn’t. And what’s so funny is we hear—I’ve heard it a bunch of times now because we were in the Middle East screening it for a bunch of sailors and troops on different bases in Africa and Asia, and we got this comment ‘that was Obama at the end.’
The person I saw it with was sure it was President Obama. And I said that doesn’t make any sense because there’s a phone and—
Yeah, there’s a phone. And, by the way, it’s the back of my head, and I definitely don’t look anything like Barack Obama. So I don’t know, that was strange. But no, it’s not meant to be anyone particular, it’s just meant to sort of dovetail with the earlier scene of Henry and Abe.
And then maybe you’ll run for president?
Oh, I highly doubt that. I highly doubt that. It’s so funny because there’s a lot of fist-pumping and shouting that happens at these screenings, and granted that’s because we’ve been showing it to soldiers and everything. Look, it’s definitely not a think piece, you know. We’re not fooling ourselves. It’s a crazy action movie with you know, just a premise that happens not to be a sequel or a reboot or a remake or based on a toy or a video game or a board game. It’s kind of unapologetically different.
So there’s your answer. He’s not the President, he’s just an in-joke. And Grahame-Smith says that not having to play a character was good for him. “I’m a terrible, terrible actor,” he says. “Put that on top of being self-conscious about being on camera and it’s a recipe for disaster.” His main memory of shooting the scene is, he says, just trying not to laugh. But it’s no laughing matter that today there is one fewer mystery in the world. You’re welcome.