[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 .