Here’s What’s Going on in That Brilliant ‘Deadpool 2’ Mid-Credits Scene
(Note: This post contains spoilers for the end of “Deadpool 2,” so read on at your own risk!)
Don’t leave “Deadpool 2” when the credits roll, because one of the best parts of the movie comes during its mid-credits scene.
Or at least, it’s one of the best parts if you’re a Ryan Reynolds and superhero movie fan. “Deadpool 2” and its star have no problems making fun of themselves, taking shots at Reynolds’ previous roles in superherodom.
The mid-credits scene sees Deadpool (Reynolds) using Cable’s time travel device (he’s from the future) to go back in time, first skipping through the events of “Deadpool 2” to undo some tragedies and save a few lives — specifically, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and Peter (Rob Delaney). Then he goes fully meta, and goes further back in time to save Ryan Reynolds’ career.
First, the scene flashes to a weird warehouse where we see Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) standing across from a weird, shirtless scary guy with his mouth stitched shut. Yep, it’s a scene from 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”
If you don’t remember that film, it actually contains the first attempt at bringing Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool, to moviescreens. Set in the post-Vietnam era, it tells the story of how Wolverine got his metal skeleton and metal claws. But it also sees Wade turned into a truly bizarre version of Deadpool: a shirtless monster whose face and body are ritually scarred and whose mouth is sewn shut — meaning the “Merc with the Mouth” can’t even talk.
It’s almost universally considered the worst-ever take on the character, to the point that it was even mocked in the first “Deadpool,” when wade plays with the action figure version.
Luckily, before we can see any of that, the current version of Deadpool pops into the scene and shoots other-Deadpool execution style, telling Wolverine he’s “just cleaning up some timelines.”
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Deadpool next travels through time for one more meta joke: to find Ryan Reynolds himself. We see Reynolds sitting at a desk, looking over the script for 2011’s “Green Lantern” and gloating that he’s about to hit the big time. Deadpool pops into the scene and shoots Reynolds too, then looks at the camera and says “You’re welcome, Canada.”
“Green Lantern” was very much panned by critics and fans — it caries only a 26 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Reynolds uses Deadpool to make the joke that “Green Lantern” was so bad, he’d rather be dead than have starred as its hero, Hal Jordan. What’s more, Reynolds makes fun of himself for thinking that the panned “Green Lantern” might rocket him into becoming a major player in the world of superhero blockbusters.
Of course, that moment did eventually come a few years later when he finally got a proper “Deadpool” movie made in 2016. And the rest would be history, if Deadpool hadn’t murdered Reynolds years before that movie happened. It’s a paradox!
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