[Editor’s note: The following article contains spoilers for both “Deadpool & Wolverine” and its post-credits scene.]
Here’s a fun exercise, if you’re so inclined: think back on some of the bigger, splashier Marvel Cinematic Universe post-credits scenes of yore. Remember the ones built around now-fired star Jonathan Majors? Or the one that introduced Charlize Theron as Clea? The two that hinted at a whole future for The Eternals? For every post-credits scene that set up something that was actually going to happen in the MCU (like the future of Yelena Belova or what’s next for Spider-Man), there are just as many post-credits sequences that promise major changes, castings, and plot points that just … fizzle out.
This far into the tenure of the MCU — 16 years of “content” — it’s understandable that not every big swing in the form of a little, tacked-on final scene is going to pan out, but man, some of these sure aimed for the fences and didn’t even bunt that final pitch.
So, yes, it’s refreshing that Shawn Levy’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” a film that tries to gently reinvent the MCU genre while also poking massive fun at it, opts to do something different with its single post-credits scene (and an in-credits video package that, sure, can count as its own mid-credits whatever). Sick of post-credits scenes that set up massive changes that don’t ever seem to pan out? Leave it to Levy, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, and a special guest to offer their own clever-enough cure.
[One more warning: The following article contains spoilers for both “Deadpool & Wolverine” and its post-credits scene.]
Good Riddance
The final moments of “Deadpool & Wolverine” make the space for what essentially boils down to a behind-the-scenes fan cam of the 20th Century Fox/Marvel movies, offering a genuinely sweet little clip show of the making of the previous films, including all of the X-Men features, the 2005 “Fantastic Four,” and the two previous “Deadpool” films. Marvel (sorry) at a young, nervous Jackman! Delight in seeing Sir Patrick Stewart in his Professor X get-up! Wonder about why we didn’t love that first “Fantastic Four” while we had it!
In true tongue-in-cheek Deadpool fashion, the entire package is set to Green Day’s “Time of Your Life,” except, wait just one moment: the actual title of the song is “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” which puts a zingy little bow on the entire effort. The song’s message is sweet, but that title belies just enough pop to still feel Deadpool-esque.
A Little “Rashomon,” As a Treat
There’s no way to unpack the film‘s sole post-credits scene without spoiling every other major plot point that came before (the whole chimichanga, if you will). With that in mind, consider this your final spoiler warning.
Here goes: in the film, Deadpool (Reynolds) goes searching for a Wolverine (Jackman) to replace the one missing from his timeline (the very same Wolverine who occupied James Mangold’s “Logan,” the one who died at the end of that film and is, in fact, still very dead in this one). Through a series of machinations, lies, schemes, actual truths, etc., Deadpool believes the only way he can save his timeline (and all the people he loves inside of it) is by introducing a Wolverine (any Wolverine) into it and resetting a whole mess of things that went wrong after the other Wolverine’s death.
Eventually (read: after a long, mostly amusing montage that sees Deadpool jumping into various timelines and meeting their Wolverines), the Merc with the Mouth finds a Logan willing (kind of) to go along with him. Upon returning to Deadpool’s timeline, the duo are promptly tossed into “The Void,” which we soon come to understand is basically a holding area for a wide variety of superheroes the Time Variance Authority deemed unworthy or unpredictable (many of them, like our Deadpool, hail from snuffed-out timelines, though they were too strong to be killed off like everyone and everything else). This is, of course, very funny and a hell of a way to bring back all sorts of superheroes from previous Fox/Marvel movies who’ve been shunted aside as the MCU attempts to get all its be-caped ducks into a single row.
So, yes, this means that The Void is populated with all kinds of major stars (read: huge cameos), from Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Wesley Snipes as Blade (the only one!!), and Channing Tatum as Gambit (a character he was long, long attached to play in a solo film that never panned out). But, the first hero we meet is a very special one: It’s Chris Evans. As Johnny Storm. (That Deadpool is obsessed with Evans’ far more popular MCU hero, Captain America, is just one of many winks and nods that are part of this natty piece of storytelling.)
Johnny is, like everyone else in The Void, pretty pissed off about where he’s ended up. And why shouldn’t he be? Not only are they in a horrific wasteland with their timelines destroyed to boot, but the whole joint is ruled by Professor X’s nutty twin sister Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), who is as unpredictable as she is evil. After a literally back-breaking battle with Deadpool and Wolverine, the trio are snatched up by Cassandra’s goons and hauled off to her disgusting headquarters.
That’s where Deadpool lets loose a stream of truly astounding insults (lots of wordplay! lots of swears!) on Cassandra, all of which he swears he’s simply repeating based on stuff Johnny said on the way there. Alas, in the film itself, we never see the Human Torch say these things, and the overall bent toward perverse denigrations sure sounds like the kind of stuff Deadpool would say. No matter: Cassandra still blames Johnny, and promptly murders him by removing his skin, leaving him in a pile of shocked bones. Poor Johnny!
It is only in the film’s single post-credit scene that we see what actually happened, as it flashes back to the sequence in which the trio were kidnapped and dispatched to Cassandra’s headquarters, and (surprise!) we soon see Evans-as-Storm letting loose the very same tirade of (very funny) insults toward Cassandra. Turns out, he really did say all of that, and his de-skinned death was kind of his fault. Mostly, it’s amusing to see Evans, who MCU fans are so used to seeing as the squeaky-clean Cap, letting loose in truly R-rated fashion. Try making a sequel out of that.
A Walt Disney Pictures release, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is now in theaters.
