Deadpool & Wolverine Ending Explained: Why the Fox Universe Survived and What the Post Credit Scene Proves About Johnny Storm

Deadpool & Wolverine does not end with Deadpool killing the Fox universe, as a lot of us expected. It ends with him saving it, and the post credit scene settles whether Johnny Storm really insulted Cassandra Nova. Full spoilers follow for the ending and the post credit scene.

To make sense of both, a few points from earlier in the film matter, so I will start there before getting to Johnny Storm and to why I believe the Fox universe was left alive for a very specific reason.

Mr. Paradox Wants to Speed Up the Death of Deadpool's Timeline

During the movie we learn that Deadpool's timeline is dying. It would take a couple of thousand years to happen on its own, but Mr. Paradox wants to speed it up with a device that would kill the entire timeline instantly, something he frames as a kind of mercy kill. That puts everyone Deadpool loves at risk: Blind Al, Yukio, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Colossus, Shatterstar, Dopinder, Peter and Vanessa. He is no longer with Vanessa, but he is still in love with her, and she is a big internal driving factor for him throughout the movie, especially in the final scene.

Paradox reveals that each universe has an anchor being, and if that person dies, so does the universe. For this timeline, the anchor was the Wolverine from Logan, who died in that film. Logan takes place in the same universe as the previous Deadpool and X-Men movies, so Deadpool's solution is simple: find another Logan, bring him home, and Paradox will have no reason to destroy everyone he loves.

Henry Cavill's Wolverine Variant Was Perhaps the Best of the Bunch

Deadpool breaks Mr. Paradox's nose, takes a TVA TemPad and goes searching for the perfect Wolverine. Along the way we get some great variants. There is a comic accurate, super short Wolverine standing five foot three, which is Hugh Jackman shrunk down with CGI. There is a suited comic Wolverine fighting the Hulk, recreating that iconic cover with the Hulk and the reflection of Wolverine's claw, and then the Hulk himself pops up. Unfortunately we did not get to see that fight play out, but maybe in Secret Wars or something leading up to it.

Out of all of them, perhaps the best variant was Henry Cavill as Wolverine. Deadpool tells him they will take much better care of him than those down the street, which is of course a jab at DC and Warner Brothers.

Eventually Deadpool lands on the Wolverine variant who let down his entire world and brings him to Paradox as the new anchor. Paradox says it does not work that way. We then learn that this Wolverine's X-Men were attacked while he was away, and by the time he got back everyone was dead. He went on a killing spree, and he did not only kill the bad; he killed some good people too.

Cassandra Nova Could Not Read Johnny Storm's Mind in the Void

This was not part of Paradox's plan, so he sends both of them to the Void. That is where we get our epic Deadpool versus Wolverine fight, one of the fight scenes, anyway. Then Chris Evans makes a cameo, not as Captain America as Deadpool thinks, but as the Human Torch, and this is where the post credit scene comes into play.

They all get captured. We learn Johnny Storm has been in the Void for a while, and that other survivors live on the outskirts, which is important for later. When they are brought to Cassandra Nova, she says she has been looking for Johnny Storm for a pretty long time. Deadpool takes the opportunity to throw him under the bus, claiming Johnny said a whole bunch about her. Johnny denies it, but Deadpool is very convincing, and Cassandra rips the flesh right off Johnny, who dies, pretty instantly, one would hope.

One very important thing to note is that Cassandra cannot read Deadpool's mind or Johnny's here. As the movie shows, she has to physically stick her hands inside someone's head to go into their mind. So in this moment she is not reading Johnny and confirming he said those things. She takes Deadpool at his word, and since she has wanted Johnny for a while, she decides to kill him right then and there.

The Post Credit Scene Shows Johnny Storm Said "You Can Quote Me"

As the movie goes on, there are a few moments that make us wonder whether the Human Torch really said all of that. The post credit scene answers it. Deadpool is in the TVA, saying he is tired of people not believing him, and because the TVA is the monitoring organisation it is, they have a record of the event. He plays it back, and we hear Johnny Storm trash talk Cassandra Nova at length. I will not repeat the vulgarity, but if you saw it, you know.

One of the final things Johnny says is "you can quote me," and Deadpool says okay. So when they reach Cassandra, Deadpool is throwing Johnny under the bus on the premise that Johnny told him he could quote him. Deadpool kind of only did what Johnny said he could do.

You could also probably argue that Deadpool wanted him killed. He was hoping for Chris Evans as Captain America, a character Deadpool absolutely loves and respects in the comics. Since it was Chris Evans as the Human Torch instead, he was kind of let down, and maybe just wanted to get rid of him.

Mr. Paradox Was Off the Books With the Time Ripper

People have a lot of questions about the ending. Thanks to Pyro, Cassandra Nova learns what Mr. Paradox is up to and about his time killing machine, the Time Ripper. She wants it so she can basically do whatever she wants with the Multiverse, which means destroying a lot of universes, including the one they are in at the end: Deadpool's. The TVA is physically there because it seems the Time Ripper has to actually be in the timeline for it to work.

Importantly, Paradox and his team are off the books. The people running the TVA, like Hunter B-15, do not know what they are doing, because after the events of Loki season 2 the TVA no longer prunes timelines. It lets them branch so everybody gets a fair shot at life and free will, something Loki made possible by essentially allowing the Multiverse to live.

That is why Paradox wants the Time Ripper. His sole job is to monitor Deadpool's timeline, the Fox timeline, until it dies, which means sitting around for thousands of years. He does not want to waste his time, and eventually he wants to take over the TVA and be its leader.

Deadpool and Wolverine Survived a Sacrifice That Should Have Killed One of Them

Cassandra gets her hands on the machine, Deadpool and Wolverine show up, and Paradox tells them how to kill it, warning that whoever does will die. That does not really faze them, since they can both regenerate and kind of do not believe they can die, even though Logan proved Wolverine can die under the right circumstances, or the wrong ones. Paradox explains this is different: matter meeting antimatter will disintegrate them on an atomic level. This would be the literal death of them.

Both want to do it. Deadpool wants to finally matter, a big point throughout the movie; he wants to be somebody to people. Wolverine wants redemption for letting his world down, and whether he admits it or not, he has grown fond of our Wade Wilson. So he volunteers, and Deadpool says something really touching: that he is the best Wolverine, not the worst, as he has been called throughout the film. Then Deadpool does the old switcheroo and says it is going to be him, in sync, pun intended, because that opening scene with NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye was "one of the funniest things that I've ever seen" and I absolutely loved it.

Deadpool hits one column but cannot reach the other. Wolverine busts through the door, grabs the other column and Deadpool's hand, and his shirt immediately rips off, which I know a lot of people probably enjoyed. Hugh Jackman still has it. Then B-15 arrives. I am not sure we should call her Hunter B-15 anymore, since she seems to be running the TVA now. Paradox tries to talk his way out, claiming Deadpool and Wolverine were his guys and that he lost good men fighting Cassandra, until they walk around the corner alive and well. Because there were two of them, they shared the power between their bodies; one alone would have been completely destroyed.

B-15 Reveals the Fox Timeline Is Growing Again

The next part is very important. B-15 explains that whatever they did has caused the universe to start growing in health. It was dying because Logan would die in the future, but that has now been reversed, and the timeline has new life. It could be because this Wolverine variant is now in that universe and has become a new anchor, but the film leaves it pretty ambiguous, basically saying that whatever they did worked.

The bottom line is that this universe now lives. That is very interesting, because a lot of us thought this would be the complete death of the Fox universe, a Deadpool kills the Fox universe story. Instead he saved it, and I believe that was for a very specific reason, tied to one other thing B-15 did.

Somehow, via time travel or otherwise, she brought back Deadpool and Wolverine's team: Channing Tatum's Gambit, Wesley Snipes as Blade, Jennifer Garner as Elektra and Dafne Keen as Laura, or X-23. We only see Laura at the end, but since she is back, we could assume the rest are too. When I wrote this in July 2024, my assumption was that they were getting ready for Avengers: Secret Wars, or possibly the next Avengers film.

Why I Believed the Fox Universe Was Left Alive to Collide With Earth-616

I also think that is why they left this universe alive: so it can eventually collide with our main Earth-616 timeline. Remember, this is a separate universe. Each universe has its own main timeline, and since Loki season 2 those timelines have branches going off them. At the time, I believed Deadpool's universe was left alive and growing because eventually it will grow into ours. It may not happen naturally; it may take an incursion. But that is one way we could get the Fox X-Men characters into the main MCU.

In fact, I think the post credit scene for The Marvels points this way. Monica Rambeau ends up in a different universe where she sees Beast, and he mentions Professor Charles Xavier, meaning it is an X-Men populated universe. I believe that universe could actually be the Fox X-Men universe.

That is what happens in the comics. In the lead up to Secret Wars, incursions start happening and universes collide, ultimately destroying the entire Multiverse, and the events of Secret Wars take place after that. I think that is where the MCU is heading: the Multiverse destroyed after universes collide, with whoever is left standing fighting to restore it and defeat the film's main villain, which could be Kang or could be somebody else.

So what do you think: did Deadpool doom Johnny Storm simply because Johnny said he could quote him, or because he was let down that it was not Captain America?