Spoiler Warning for Deadpool & Wolverine

After 16 years and now 34 movies, fans know to wait until the end credits of a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. While plenty of movies from Ferris Buller’s Day Off to the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy to even 2003’s Daredevil featured post-credit scenes, with Iron Man’s iconic post-credit scene, they soon became the standard for not just Marvel but most superhero films. Deadpool & Wolverine is no different as fans who wait through the credits will be treated to not one, but two special treats.

After credits scenes, both mid and post-credits tend to take on two different forms. One is a dramatic tease hinting at future films, like how the Captain America: The Winter Soldier mid-credit scene gave audiences their first look at Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver before Avengers: Age of Ultron. The other is more of a joke scene, paying off a gag from earlier in the film, like the revelation that Tony Stark’s monologue in Iron Man 3 was him speaking to Bruce Banner in a therapy session.

The two prior Deadpool movies tended to feature joke scenes, with the first being a direct homage to Ferris Buller’s Day Off, while the sequel saw Deadpool jumping around time and “fixing” mistakes. Does Deadpool & Wolverine stick with the Deadpool formula, or does it go for a big MCU tease? Take a look and find out.

Thanks for the Memories 20th Century Fox

Deadpool & Wolverine breaks from not just the MCU convention but most superhero movies by featuring a montage of behind-the-scenes footage and montage clips of the past 24 years of 20th Century Fox Marvel adaptations. Fans see behind-the-scenes video of Ian McKellen trying on the Magneto helmet for the first time for X-Men, Ryan Reynolds interviews about playing Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and many more.

There is also footage from all the 20th Century Fox Marvel films, not just X-Men. Daredevil, Elektra, and all three Fantastic Four films are shown, including some great intercutting between seeing the same characters played by different actors like both Tyler Maine’s and Liev Schreiber’s Sabretooth or both Michael Chicklis and Jamie Bell’s The Thing. All this is done to Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).”

Related Lady Deadpool’s Path to the Screen Started in 2010 Filming Green Lantern One of Deadpool & Wolverine’s most highly publicized characters was also kept secretive, but SPOILER is speaking out about their exciting variant.

The Significance of This Montage
It is an incredibly moving montage, particularly for audiences who grew up in the early 2000s and had these films as their first exposure to the Marvel Universe. These movies walked so the Marvel Cinematic Universe could run. The 20th Century Fox films might not have had the same level of quality as the MCU, but the superhero genre would not be where it is without it. It is nice to see the high points of Logan, X2: X-Men United, and X-Men: Days of Future Past shown alongside critical flops like Elektra, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and the 2015 Fantastic Four. All of them, the good and bad, are part of this legacy.

Related 12 Canceled Marvel Movies That Will Never See the Light of Day For every Marvel movie that has made the quantum leap to big-screen success, another has remained stuck in a development limbo, or been canceled.

This mid-credit montage speaks to one of Deadpool & Wolverine’s central themes: the idea that everyone matters. The Void at the End of Time symbolizes the Marvel films and properties that have been tossed aside and forgotten about in the wake of the MCU’s success. Characters like Jennifer Garner’s Elektra and Wesley Snipes’s Blade (not a 20th Century Fox film but New Line Cinema) get another chance to shine because these characters mean something to somebody.

Somewhere out there, their first exposure to the Marvel Universe was one of these characters, and that matters more than the box office or a critical rating. The 20th Century Fox era of Marvel came to an abrupt end with the release of New Mutants in 2020, but this closing montage lets the era take one final bow and allows viewers to remember the good memories. Whereas all previous movies began with the 20th Century Fox logo, here, the montage ends with the studio logo closing it all out one last time.

One Last Joke to Leave On

After that incredible montage that likely will leave viewers nostalgic and a bit teary-eyed, Deadpool & Wolverine has one last joke up his sleeve for the audience so they can leave the theater with one final laugh. Similar to the ending of the first Deadpool, the character of Deadpool breaks the fourth wall in the film’s post-credit scene. Here he is in the TVA viewing room, saying he wants to clear things up for the audience.

Related Why The Marvels Has One of the Best Post-Credits Scenes in the MCU Seemingly insignificant on its surface, the post-credit scene of The Marvels offers huge implications for the future of the MCU.

Earlier in the film, Deadpool gets Chris Evans’ version of Johnny Storm/The Human Torch killed by Casandra Nova. Deadpool tells Casandra Nova that Johnny Storm said a series of awful things about her, including some brutal expletives. Johnny Storm pleads, saying he never said that before Cassandra Nova kills him, with people making references throughout the movie that Deadpool got Johnny Storm killed.

Deadpool shows the audience that he didn’t say anything that wasn’t true and shows the audience footage from when he, Wolverine, and Johnny Storm are being transported to Cassandra Nova. Evans’ Johnny Storm does an exact repeat of the monologue Deadpool said earlier in the film, showing that Deadpool was not lying. Deadpool ends the movie, dropping the remote (and essentially the mic) to end the film.

No Tease for X-Men, Avenger 5, or Avengers: Secret Wars

For audiences hoping that Deadpool & Wolverine after-credits scenes would feature a tease for a future MCU movie, they are sadly out of luck. Likely due to the film being rated R, Marvel Studios might not feature any big teases or future films in a film that some audience members can’t legally buy a ticket for. There is also the fact that the film is opening on Comic-Con weekend, and likely, any big teases for the future of the MCU are being saved for that.

While fans might be disappointed there are no big teases for the upcoming X-Men reboot, or resolving the plot line of Kang the Conqueror from both Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Loki, or teasing more multiverse incursions for Avengers: Secret Wars, that has never been what the Deadpool movies were. Deadpool films have always been comedies, and it is keeping in the spirit of the character and the prior films. The previous films ended with jokes, so too should Deadpool & Wolverine.

Meanwhile, the montage for the 20th Century Fox era of Marvel films is a nice change of pace. Deadpool is a fourth-wall-breaking character, so it makes sense to have his film be the one to bring the audiences behind the scenes and show footage of actors talking about their characters and highlighting the history of this particular era of Marvel, which is special. As Daredevil, Elektra, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men are all now under the Marvel Studios banner and are at various points of being weaved into the MCU, it is nice for a movie that a large audience will likely see to give the attention to what came before and say thank you before looking to the future and asking “what is next?”