Deadpool & Wolverine's end-credit scene is heartwarming...and also evil

Per usual for a Marvel Cinematic Universe title, Deadpool & Wolverine features an end credits scene. While a traditional post-credits sequence occurs, this Shawn Levy directorial effort also has a surprise during the credits: a montage. Filling up half the screen is a collection of footage (comprised of behind-the-scenes material, interviews, and clips) from various 20th Century Fox Marvel movies set to Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”. Audiences see Hugh Jackman interviewed circa. 2000 about the pressures of playing Wolverine, especially as a largely unknown performer. Shortly after, a 2009 interview with Ryan Reynolds sees him expressing joy over the idea of playing Deadpool.

Deadpool & Wolverine's leads aren't the only focus here. X-Men cast members Halle Berry and James Marsden pal around on the set of the first X-Men film. We see a clapper board and fight scene shooting for Jennifer Garner’s Elektra. Clips from all three Fox Fantastic Four movies appear. It’s all meant to play like something that would show at a funeral, a farewell to the past.

How fitting, then, since Deadpool & Wolverine is an official capper for the end of Fox’s Marvel adaptations. Deadpool and friends are officially in the MCU. That Merc with a Mouth and Wolverine duke it out in front of a crumbling 20th Century Fox logo. Multiple Fox/Marvel characters show up in supporting Deadpool & Wolverine roles to get “closure” they never received in their solo franchises. Even that Green Day needle drop harkens back to the early 2000s when Fox began releasing and financing Marvel features. As Marvel Studios ingratiates these characters into its larger saga, Deadpool & Wolverine’s end credit scene is, in theory, a salute to yesteryear.

On the surface, it’s a welcome surprise that’s inexpiably moving. Best of all, this montage emphasizes all the 20th Century Fox Marvel stuff. This ode to the last 20 years isn’t just focusing on the moneymakers. Elektra and Fant4stic (among others) also get to shine here. It's nice that this montage doesn't just focus on movies Marvel Studios plans to exploit further. The genuineness in those Jackman and Reynolds interviews is also quite palpable. Best of all, one of the montage’s final moments is the heartwarming “so this is what it feels like” Logan moment. Letting that touching exchange play without any undercutting punchlines is most welcome.

Yet, as this sequence transpired, I couldn’t escape this nagging feeling of something being wrong. What was it about this montage that felt inherently wrong? Then it hit me: it was an ode to a past that didn’t have to end. The only reason the 20th Century Fox era of Marvel movies concluded was because the Disney corporation bought a slew of media assets from News Corp. This wasn’t a franchise that naturally ran its course or ended because a key creative person perished. Corporate consolidation is solely for making both Deadpool & Wolverine and this montage possible.

In that sense, this montage takes on a more sinister air. It’s like somebody’s murderer giving a speech at their funeral, the “arsonist and the fireman” phenomenon in action. Suddenly, inescapable ickiness permeated a montage that previously seemed like a sweet departure from typical Marvel Studios credit scenes. With that interpretation in mind, further cracks quickly grew apparent in this sequence. For starters, where’s even a brief nod to producer Lauren Shuler Donner? She’s the person who pursued an X-Men movie adaptation in the first place! Her name appears in Deadpool & Wolverine’s opening credits for contractual purposes. However, some recognition for the figure that made the Fox/Marvel era possible would’ve been great. Kevin Feige gets name-dropped and even appears as a robot in MCU properties. Why couldn't this montage briefly tip its hat to Donner?

Then there’s the song choice. “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” has become infamous as one of the most misunderstood songs blared in public alongside Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” A go-to ditty for graduations, farewells, or other sad occasions, “Good Riddance” is actually a very bitter tune. It’s right there, in the title, after all. Kicking off with an F-bomb, "Good Riddance" is a song about frustration about the uncertainty of the future ("time grabs you by the wrist/directs you where to go"). Answers to life's woes never come when you need them. They only appear obvious in hindsight ("It's not a question/but a lesson learned in time").

Vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong lends a tangible frustrated edge to the song. It's a quality suggesting that he too is grappling with barely comprehensible existential dread. What can you say in the face of all that? Sometimes, all you can do is acknowledge "it's something unpredictable" and how that "in the end, it's right." Uncertainty is the lynchpin of this song, which makes it a terrible companion to this montage. We know why the Fox/Marvel era concluded. The cause of death is obvious! Whether intentional or not, this needle drop suggests “who can say why these movies came to a close?". “Good Riddance” is appropriate for grappling with depression or key relationships suddenly ending. It feels insulting to use it to mask the true horrors of corporate consolidation.

When the Disney/Fox merger happened, it was projected 4,000 workers would lose their jobs. Movies like Mouse Guard perished just weeks before cameras started rolling. Fox 2000 Pictures, a Fox label emphasizing smaller films starring non-white male leads (like Life of Pi, The Hate U Give, and Hidden Figures) shut down days after the Disney/Fox merger occurred. Fox animation house Blue Sky Studios abruptly shut down in April 2021, just 13 months into the pandemic. Movie theaters, meanwhile, have felt the sting of this merger too. In 2015 and 2016, 20th Century Fox delivered 15 and 16, respectively, new theatrical wide releases to theaters. In 2023, 20th Century Studios only put out three titles. This label will deliver the same number of theatrical films this year.

There’s no end to the evil ways this merger adversely affected everyday human lives and restricted opportunities for creatives and moviegoers. The end credits of Deadpool & Wolverine don’t just remind one of that reality. It also tries to get you to cry over a studio’s destruction without reminding people what caused its destruction. A Disney/Marvel Studios end credits sequence is trying to change the public perception of Fox/Marvel’s demise using the same audio and visual cues of, say, the mid-credits Cars tribute to late Pixar artist Joe Ranft. Now the ending of this movie studio was just a random passing. It's another one of those inexplicable woes Armstrong was singing about decades ago. It was most certainly NOT a byproduct of intentional corporate tomfoolery.

Most bafflingly, though, the past era of X-Men movies and Fox/Marvel features is…a bit too complicated to paste into this sort of tidy montage. Decades later, some of the lasting legacies of the Fox/Marvel movies are abuse allegations against Bryan Singer and Brett Ratner. There's also 20th Century Fox pushing back against Fant4stic director Josh Trank wanting a Black actress for Sue Storm/Invisible Woman. Let's not further forget Ben Affleck’s enduring hatred of Daredevil. These qualities do not immediately erase the hard work put in by below-the-line workers on these films. Nor do they automatically render folks who like Marvel/Fox titles “bad”.

However, this montage sequence doesn’t just provide a tidy interpretation of the Disney/Fox merger. It also erases the complicated edges of the Fox/Marvel era of filmmaking. We’re not seeing a fully dimensional portrait of a specific comic book movie style. It’s just another candy-coated vision of the past from a studio currently embroiled in a lawsuit alleging that Disney executives emboldened Harvey Weinstein. Why wouldn’t the Mouse House want to control what the past looks like?

If nothing else, let's hope some of the Fox/Marvel artists and actors feel some closure while watching this montage. Perhaps audiences will cheer at these glimpses into yesteryear and give under-recognized visual effects artists and crew members a sense of appreciation. Otherwise, though, Deadpool & Wolverine’s conceptually poignant end credits tribute to Fox/Marvel cinema is a disturbing creation. It’s a reminder of monopolistic media practices and how easy it is to whitewash the past. That's not what you'd call a touching tribute to artists. Even X-Men Origins: Wolverine deserved better than this!