Deadpool 2's Mind-Bending Post-Credits Scenes, Explained

When you're done here, check out our comprehensive breakdown of Deadpool 2's extended cut vs. the theatrical release, including every change, difference, and addition in the Super Duper edition, plus the 21 things we learned from the Blu-ray special features and all the Easter eggs and references in the movie. You can also read our Deadpool 2 review, watch the 'Inside The X-Mansion' Super Duper Cut deleted scene, read more about Matt Damon's secret cameo, and find out about the cut after credits scene that might have gone too far.

While Deadpool 2 may not technically exist in the main Marvel Cinematic Universe, it still happily employs the time honored tradition of the post-credits scene--with an extremely Wade Wilson twist tossed in for good measure, of course.

Don't pretend like you didn't come here for spoilers--there are a lot of those ahead.

As the dust clears in the final conflict between the X-Force and "Firefist," we see Negasonic Teenage Warhead and her girlfriend, Yukio, tinkering around with Cable's time travel tech, which, according to him, should be all but useless now, keeping him stranded in the present day. Apparently, however, the gadgets of the not-too-distant future are no match for the engineering prowess of the X-Men, because NTW and Yukio are able to fix the device and pass it over to Wade.

That's right: Deadpool can time travel now, and it goes pretty much exactly the way you'd expect.

The first stops in Wade's timeline-manipulation grand tour are well within the scope of his own movie. He immediately hops back to prevent the death of his girlfriend, Vanessa, by correcting his botched cream cheese spreader throw and nailing her would-be murderer right between the eyes. Next up is the rescue of Wade's favorite faux X-Force (fauX-Force?) member, Peter AKA Sugar Bear, the regular guy with no powers. Peter met his untimely and grisly demise the first time around after he became the unfortunate recipient of Zeitgeist's acid vomit, so Wade steps in just moments earlier, telling him to go home before he can put himself in more danger.

It's worth noting that he does not try and save the rest of the team. Sorry, Terry Crews fans.

After the great Peter rescue things start to take a far more meta twist as Wade begins to hopscotch through various other movies. His first stop is 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the infamous "first appearance" of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. "First appearance" gets scare quotes in this case because, as fans will quickly tell you, the Deadpool who appeared in Origins was basically anything but Deadpool--a mutilated science experiment, sure, but other than that? Not so much. Origins' Deadpool was a mouthless, shirtless, dead eyed foot soldier who had about ten minutes of screen time total, so present day Wade is here to clean up the mess. Deadpool is dead, long live Deadpool.

The final stop on his trip is even more meta. Wade roles up to the home of Ryan Reynolds in 2010, as he first lays eyes on the script for the disastrous Green Lantern live action movie where Reynolds starred as Hal Jordan, complete with CGI costume and digitally enhanced comic book muscles. Green Lantern has become infamous as one of the pinnacles of bad superhero movies. So naturally, it's the perfect target for Deadpool's self-aware gags. Wade shoots Reynolds in the head, "preventing" Green Lantern from ever existing in the first place. Case closed. No more jokes about green cartoon super suits to be found here, folks. As far as DP is concerned, it never happened. Time to move on.

Now, what does any of this mean? That's a great question. Obviously, especially in the case of the movie-hopping, some of these gags exist just to be gags. Deadpool killing a previous, inferior version of Deadpool simply provides some laughs for fans who have been paying attention these last nine years.

Even with the in-universe stuff, it's pretty safe to assume that the continuity of Deadpool is a "Butterfly Effect" free zone. Wade saving Vanessa probably doesn't mean that the plot of Deadpool 2 never happened, saving Peter probably doesn't cause some sort of temporal ripple that means Cable never stuck around at the end, and so on. That type of consequence exists in movies like X-Men: Days of Future Past, but not here.

It's one of the benefits of being a character like Wade Wilson: You get to pick and choose what rules you want to follow and when. If anything sticks in a relevant, plot-enhancing way it'll likely be a continued role for Morena Baccarin, should she return for any sequels. And that's good enough for us.