'Deadpool 2' Mid-Credits Scenes Are The Best Gag Of The Franchise, But They Also Raise Some Questions
Deadpool 2 is in theaters right now, and thankfully the trailers and marketing haven't spoiled all of the surprises in store for fans heading to see the irreverent superhero comedy this weekend. One of the biggest surprises comes from the sequel's two mid-credits scenes.
Since this is Deadpool we're talking about, they're not really trying to blow fans' minds by setting up future sequels, but rather delivering more meta gags as the Merc with a Mouth is wont to do. However, while these Deadpool 2 credits scenes are hilarious, they also raise some important questions about the future of Deadpool and the developing X-Force movie. If you haven't seen Deadpool 2 and you don't want any spoilers, then don't read any further.
Setting Up the Credits Scenes
In Deadpool 2, we meet Josh Brolin as Cable. He's a mutant who has traveled back in time from the future where his wife and daughter were killed by a powerful mutant. That mutant just so happens to be Russell (Julian Dennison), a teen who is just beginning to control and understand the strength of his powers, which allow him to generate high amounts of heat and fire from his fists. Cable comes back to this time period to kill Russell and stop him from murdering his family.
The technology behind the time travel isn't entirely explained, but Cable has a device that requires some kind of fuel to time travel. In the movie, he only has enough to travel back in time to kill Russell and then travel back home. However, Wade Wilson sacrifices himself (using a mutant power-inhibiting collar to stop him from healing) in order to stop Russell from being killed. Cable then surprisingly decides to go back in time and save Wade's life while still letting Russell be saved as well.
That means Cable can't go back to his wife and daughter, but he's satisfied knowing that they're safe in the future. Cable decides he should maybe stick around and make sure the world doesn't get any more fucked up than it already is, setting up the forthcoming X-Force movie that will come before Deadpool 3.
Deadpool: Time Traveler
The first mid-credits scene for Deadpool 2 comes after the stylish closing credits sequence. Negasonic Teenage Warhead is working on fixing Cable's time travel device so that it can be used again. Deadpool is anxiously waiting for her to be done, and once she finishes, she hands off the device to Deadpool, immediately regretting her decision of giving this mad man that much power.
At first, we're left thinking that maybe this sets up a sequel where Deadpool will use time travel in some capacity. We go back to the credits for a bit, but then we come back for the meat of this mid-credits gag.
First up, Deadpool arrives back at his apartment during the scene where his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) was killed by the thug who got away in the opening sequence. It's a real Uncle Ben conundrum that Deadpool created for himself. But equipped with Cable's time travel device, he stops Vanessa from being killed.
Next, the Merc with a Mouth travels to the moment when most of the X-Force ends up being killed as they skydive and parachute in high winds down to a caravan of mutants being transferred from the prison known as The Icebox. Deadpool takes a moment to save only one of the X-Force members though: the crowd favorite character Peter (Rob Delaney), who perished by having acid spit at him by Zeitgeist after the mutant ended up getting sucked into a wood chipper.
After that, we flashback all the way to the moment when Wolverine faced off with the bastardized version of Deadpool from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Yes, Hugh Jackman appears, but not in new footage. It's only his performance from the movie used for a couple shots. Speaking of shots, that's exactly what Deadpool fires into this shitty version of the character. Not only does he shoot him in the head, but he fires a bunch of bullets into his dead body for good measure.
Finally, Deadpool isn't just about fixing his own timeline. He also finds Ryan Reynolds and shoots him right in the head just as he's about to read the script for Green Lantern. Talk about taking shots at DC.
Do These Credits Scenes Matter to the Future?
Those last two moments of time travel are obviously just meant to be jokes for longtime comic book movie fans. They've been very vocal about hating the version of Deadpool who showed up in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, who was also the butt of a few jokes in the first Deadpool movie. Meanwhile, Green Lantern had been endlessly lambasted by fans ever since it came out. Even Warner Bros. has poked fun at the movie in a joke from the trailer for the animated Teen Titans Go! to the Movies coming this summer. But what about those first two instances of time travel?
The first two times Deadpool travels back in time, he fixes things that happened in Deadpool 2 that could have an effect on Deadpool's future in the movies. The saving of Peter feels like a harmless instance of time travel that allows for the surprisingly popular character to come back in a future X-Force movie. However, it doesn't really change the outcome of the rest of the film's story at all. And since Peter doesn't appear to have any superpowers (that we know of), his presence wouldn't have changed the outcome of the rest of the movie. So it's really not a big deal.
But the first time Deadpool travels back in time and saves Vanessa feels like a problem if it's canon to the Deadpool franchise. Obviously, Deadpool doesn't exactly play by the same rules as more of the "grounded" movies that take place in the X-Men universe. The fourth wall breaking and meta humor that comes from Deadpool knowing that he's in a movie means that this franchise doesn't really have to play by any rules. But that makes taking the more tender moments of Deadpool 2 seriously, especially when it comes to Wade Wilson's character arc, is a little difficult.
If Wade was actually able to save Vanessa and she's back for X-Force and/or Deadpool 3, then doesn't that negate the entire life lesson experience that he had while trying to save Russell? We see that fixing things in the past has the Back to the Future effect of fixing the future immediately, as Cable's daughter's teddy bear changes from being burned and dirty to being totally clean. So maybe when Wade saves Vanessa's life, the Wade of the future is instantly changed as if all of the events of the movie still happened (especially those involving Cable and Russell) with the exception of Vanessa's death. After all, if Vanessa was alive, there's a good chance that Deadpool still would have gotten caught up in that storyline somehow, right?
Honestly, the X-Men timeline is so fractured and confusing that it doesn't really matter. And like we said, Deadpool doesn't exactly play by the same rules as the rest of the X-Men franchise, so they can play a little more fast and loose with story elements like this and fans aren't really going to pitch a fit about it. At the end of the day, the scenes are hilarious, and they may or may not impact who comes back for X-Force and/or Deadpool 3.
What do you think of the credits scenes? Do they matter to the future of Deadpool?