Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
DEADPOOL AND WOLVERINE
Starring Ryan Reynolds (Wade Wilson / Deadpool), Hugh Jackman (Logan / Wolverine), and Emma Corrin (Cassandra Nova), with Leslie Ugamms (Blind Al), Morena Baccarin (Vanessa Carlysle), Rob Delaney (Peter), Karan Soni (Dopinder), Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic Teenage Warhead), Stefan Kapicic (the Voice of Colossus), Shioli Kutsuna (Yukio), Randal Reeder (Buck), Lewis Tan (Shatterstar), and Wunmi Mosaku (Hunter B-15), and introducing Matthew Macfadyen as Agent Paradox.
Directed by Shawn Levy
Produced by Kevin Feige, Lauren Shuler Donner, Shawn Levy, and Ryan Reynolds
Written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Ryan Reynolds, and Zeb Wells with Shawn Levy
Music By Rob Simonsen
Distributed by Walt Disney Studios
Run Time: 2 hours and 8 minutes
World Premier: July 22, 2004 (New York)
Opening Weekend Box Office: $211 million (United States)
Worldwide Box Office: $1.2 billion
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80% (97% Audience Score)
This is a SPOILER REVIEW of Marvel Studios’ Deadpool and Wolverine. If you do not wish to be SPOILED, please STOP READING now and come back after you’ve seen the movie if you don’t want to be SPOILED!!!
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Fun Deadpool and Wolverine Facts
Deadpool and Wolverine is a film with deep roots in the 13 live action films that comprised Fox’s X-Men film Universe from 2000-2020. Many have in fact labeled Deadpool and Wolverine as a love letter to that Universe and its rich legacy within not only the world of comic book movies, but specifically within the world of Marvel movies. It’s been nearly 25-years since Fox’s first X-Men film commenced filming (September 22, 1999, to be exact) and it is often pointed to as the launching pad for live action Marvel adaptations (though New Line Cinema’s Blade was released two years before 2000’s X-Men, the X-Men film was much more of a “superhero” movie). The importance of 2000’s X-Men therefore cannot be overstated.
Anticipation for 2000’s X-Men was extremely high throughout the comic book community, as evident by its monstrous opening weekend numbers. With $57 million at the box office, X-Men set a new opening weekend record for superhero movies, eclipsing the previous record holder Batman Forever ($ 53 million). X-Men finished its theatrical run with $296 million worldwide and it was the ninth highest-grossing film of the year.
The reason there was so much anticipation for X-Men was due to the immense popularity of Marvel’s mutants within the comics and the widespread love for X-Men: The Animated Series. The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963. The original team was comprised of Cyclops, Jean Grey (Marvel Girl), Beast, Angel, and Iceman and was overseen by Professor Charles Xavier. Early X-Men stories saw The X-Men at odds with Magneto and his “Brotherhood of Evil Mutants” (Toad, Mastermind, Quicksilver, and The Scarlet Witch). Both of these rosters would expand astronomically as the comics went on and numerous new mutants were created to stand on either side of the ongoing conflict. X-Men comics unabashedly served as a vehicle through which writers and artists could condemn prejudice and racism, and this made it easy for countless fans to relate to the stories and the characters within them. No one captured that spirit more than writer Chris Claremont, who after helping revolutionize Marvel’s mutants in 1975, would spend the next 17-years of his life authoring the adventures, the trials, and the tribulations of The X-Men, penning acclaimed story arcs such as God Loves … Man Kills, The Dark Phoenix Saga, and Days of Future Past. Claremont furthermore created popular characters such as Rogue, Psylocke, Kitty Pryde, Mystique, William Stryker, Emma Frost, Cannonball, Warpath, Wolfsbane, Sabretooth, Sebastian Shaw, Pyro, Legion, Mister Sinister, and Gambit. Claremont’s run wrapped around the time that X-Men: The Animated Series debuted and for five-years, said series thrilled fans by presenting several popular mutant characters and adapting many of the X-Men’s most beloved stories. The final episode of the initial run of X-Men: The Animated Series aired in the Fall of 1997.
There have numerous contributors to the lore of The X-Men and related characters over the years, but there are six that I must mention for this specific write-up and that’s Len Wein, John Romita Jr, Herb Trimpe, Roy Thomas, Fabian Nicieza, and Rob Liefeld. Wein, Romita, Trimpe, and Thomas created Wolverine together in 1974. Nicieza and Liefeld created Deadpool together in 1991. Wolverine and Deadpool have gone on to become arguably Marvel’s two most popular mutants; Wolverine as a recurring member of The X-Men and Deadpool as a fringe character. Both Deadpool and Wolverine have been the subjects of some of Marvel’s more mature stories as they are amongst Marvel’s most violent characters. Stories revolving around Wolverine tend to be on the serious and oftentimes tragic side, while stories revolving around Deadpool are satire in nature and grounded in humor. I do have some recommendations for those interested in the comics that I believe would be worth your time. For Wolverine, I recommend Origin by Paul Jenkins and Joe Quesada, Weapon X by Barry Windsor Smith, Wolverine by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, Enemy of the State by Mark Millar with John Romita Jr and Klaus Janson, Old Man Logan by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, Death of Wolverine by Charles Soule and Steve McNiven, and pretty much Jason Aaron’s entire run. For Deadpool, you can’t go wrong with anything written by Joe Kelly, and Cable and Deadpool by Fabian Nicieza is 50-issues of Deadpool goodness, and Deadpool by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn is phenomenal! Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe is probably my single favorite Deadpool story (by Cullen Bunn with Dalibor Talajic) while Spider-Man and Deadpool is damn near perfection. There are numerous other Team-Up / Showdown titles featuring Deadpool with and against other Marvel characters that are also highly entertaining!
Back to 2000’s X-Men, this film to this day feels like a modern Marvel movie in many ways. We were introduced to several captivating characters, a complex friendship-turned rivalry due to differing philosophies between two people (Xavier and Magneto) that see themselves as doing what is best for mutantkind, and there was even a Stan Lee cameo! 2000’s X-Men also happens to be the first Marvel movie that some guy named Kevin Feige worked on! Yes, X-Men was made with input from an upstart Marvel Studios, which was in those days led by Avi Arad. 20th Century Fox had acquired the film and licensing rights to Marvel’s mutants in the mid-1990’s, and Marvel sold these rights in an effort to stay afloat as they faced potential bankruptcy. While Fox distributed X-Men, Marvel Studios assisted in a production role that gave them a say in the script-writing process, the hiring of directors, and in casting. Three weeks into filming 2000’s X-Men, actor Hugh Jackman suited up as Wolverine. Dougray Scott had initially been cast for the role but had to back out due to scheduling conflicts.
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Fox would go on to make two more X-Men films with Marvel Studios: 2003’s highly praised X2:X-Men United, and 2006’s heavily criticized (but highly profitable) X-Men: The Last Strand. In the meantime, Marvel Enterprises became Marvel Entertainment; a reflection of the company’s new initiative to finance its own motion pictures through Marvel Studios. Beyond X-Men: The Last Stand, the working agreement between Marvel Studios and Fox on the production of X-Men films as it had once been ceased to exist as the Marvel Studios team concentrated on the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe while Fox’s team did their own thing. A fourth X-Men film was released by Fox in 2009: the heavily criticized X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which featured the underwhelming live action debut of Deadpool. After the Origins film, a decision was made by Fox to reboot the franchise with 2011’s excellent X-Men: First Class. 2013 then saw the release of The Wolverine, and then in 2014, the past and present X-Men Cinematic mythologies collied in the extraordinary X-Men: Days of Future Past. Ensuing X-Men films by Fox included 2016’s Deadpool (in which Fox finally got Deadpool right), the divisive X-Men: Apocalypse, and then 2017’s critically acclaimed Logan, which was intended to be Hugh Jackman’s final performance as the Wolverine character.
Meanwhile, after replacing the departing Avi Arad as Marvel Studios President in 2007, Kevin Feige embarked upon a journey that would literally revolutionize Hollywood with the creation of the immensely successful Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure, there were some missteps along the way, but 2008’s Iron Man was the perfect foundation upon which the MCU was built and 2012’s The Avengers was the biggest comic book movie hit of all-time up to that point. The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment and Marvel Studios with it at the end of 2009, and as the MCU continued to grow, Kevin Feige accumulated more respect and more power at Disney, and by 2017, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a juggernaut as fans and critics alike continuously gushed over Marvel Studios productions and the MCU grew to boast four billion-dollar films (The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Captain America: Civil War) and a number of critical darlings (Iron Man, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Thor: Ragnarok). As evident by that list, Marvel Studios had also negotiated a lucrative deal with Sony Pictures (who owned the Spider-Man licensing rights in the same way that Fox owned the rights to The X-Men) that would bring Spider-Man (Marvel’s most popular character) into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016.
From there, on December 17, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced that an agreement had been reached with 20th Century Fox that would see Disney acquire Fox’s television and film divisions, among other things. The lucrative Fox deal therefore landed the film rights to Marvel’s mutants under the Disney / Marvel Studios umbrella and promised to bring The X-Men, Wolverine, and Deadpool (and The Fantastic Four with them) into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Fox shareholders unanimously approved the transaction on July 27, 2018, and the deal was finalized on March 20, 2019. In the meantime, Deadpool 2 was released theatrically in 2018, performing as well as its predecessor, followed by the disappointing Dark Phoenix in 2019, and then New Mutants in 2020. New Mutants was released during the COVID-19 Global Pandemic and at $49 million was the lowest-grossing X-Men film of all-time. New Mutants marked the thirteenth and the last X-Men project produced by the previous regime at Fox.
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From the moment that the Fox deal was announced, MCU fans began anticipating the arrival of mutants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It would be three years removed from the closing of the deal before this would come to be, however. During that time, the MCU would be established as the highest-grossing film franchise of all-time, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame would (temporarily) become the highest-grossing movie of all-time, and Marvel Studios President Kevin Fiege would be promoted to the position of Marvel Entertainment Chief Creative Officer. The MCU furthermore grew to boast ten billion-dollar films, with Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War ($ 2 billion), Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame ($2 billion), Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home joining The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Captain America: Civil War. The first hint at what could be to come came on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, when Ryan Reynolds and Taika Waititi unveiled a trailer for their upcoming film Free Guy (starring Reynolds and directed by Waititi) in the form of a promotional short with Reynolds in-character as Deadpool and Waititi in-character as Korg (whom he portrayed in the Marvel Studios films Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame). During the vignettes, Deadpool is seen asking Korg how he can get into the MCU (a theme that would be paid off in Deadpool and Wolverine). In the meantime, Free Guy (released on August 13, 2021) ended up directly referencing the MCU, complete with a cameo by Chris Evans, who portrayed Steve Rogers / Captain America in ten Marvel Studios films from 2011-2019, who humorously reacts to the sight of Reynolds’ character wielding a version of Captain America’s iconic shield in the movie.
On October 1, 2021, with the release of Sony Pictures’ Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the MCU was changed forever as Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock / Venom was transported into the MCU 616-Universe (the Sacred Timeline) from Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. This was the first official instance of a character crossing over from one Cinematic Universe into the MCU, complete with its previously established history. This trend continued in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, which saw Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker, Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker, Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn, Alfred Molina’s Otto Octavius, Thomas Hayden Chruch’s Sandman, Rhys Ifans’ Lizard, and Jamie Fox’s Max Dillon all getting transported into the MCU as well from various Spider-Man films produced by Sony. These events set the precedent for Deadpool’s eventual arrival into the MCU from the Fox X-Men Universe in Deadpool and Wolverine.
In 2022’s Marvel Studios film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, mutants at long last formally arrived to the MCU … well, sort of. For that film, Marvel Studios brought back Patrick Stewart to reprise his role as Charles Xavier / Professor X under the Marvel Studios banner. This Variant version of Stewart was not only the leader of The X-Men, but also an esteemed member of The Illuminati, and resided in the MCU 838-Universe and not in the MCU 616-Universe, which is where Marvel Studios’ films and shows primarily take place. Stewart’s Xavier did, however, mingle with the MCU 616-Universe’s Doctor Stephen Strange (portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch), who visited the MCU 838-Universe in the film. Following Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, mutants have slowly but surely begun to pop-up in other MCU projects produced by Marvel Studios. The first case of this was in the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel where young Kamala Khan was revealed to be a mutant (complete with the brief yet familiar theme of X-Men: The Animated Series). Next, in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the Namor character was referred to as a mutant. Charles Xavier. Kamala Khan. Namor. 2002 was the year of the mutant, but the biggest story pertaining to mutants in the MCU came outside the goings on of Kevin Feige’s Cinematic Universe. On September 27, 2022, actor Ryan Reynolds publicly announced that Deadpool 3 would be produced by Marvel Studios and would officially bring Deadpool into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Reynolds furthermore announced that none other than Hugh Jackman would return to the role of Wolverine for the film! On top of all of that, on July 22, 2022, Deadpool and Deadpool 2 became available to stream on the Disney+ platform in the United States; the first R-rated titles (along with Logan) to appear on the service.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Deadpool and Wolverine was significantly hindered by the Hollywood Actors and Writers Strikes of 2023. The strikes delayed production as filming had started before the strikes and could not finish until they were resolved. The strikes caused several delays throughout the industry and Deadpool and Wolverine ended up being Marvel Studios’ only theatrical release of 2024. The strikes were not the only concern that Marvel Studios had been forced to deal with either. Since 2019, the MCU had suffered through what amounted to a roller coaster ride. There had been celebratory high’s: the critical success of Disney+ series’ such as WandaVision, Loki: Season One, Hawkeye, and Ms. Marvel, and the financial success of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. However, there had also been uncharacteristic lows: divisive films such as Eternals, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, along with divisive Disney+ shows such as She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Secret Invasion. As critics used terms such as “Superhero Fatigue” to explain the decline in the MCU’s popularity, angry fans countered that the MCU had become too “woke” and that creators had become more concerned with inclusion and diversity than they were with telling good stories. Former and returning Disney CEO Bob Iger (retired in 2020 and returned in 2022) insisted that the truth was that Marvel Studios had simply been stretched too thin during his absence and that quantity had eclipsed quality. Iger promised to reverse that trend immediately. Iger’s words registered with MCU fans and critics alike, but Quantity over Quality and Actors and Writers Strike weren’t the only things that contributed to the roller coaster ride that MCU fans had experienced. There was also the aforementioned Global Pandemic, which shutdown productions, theaters, and conventions, and killed millions. There was also the shocking death of Chadwick Boseman, the MCU’s beloved Black Panther on August 28, 2020. There was also the falling out between Marvel Studios and longtime executive Victoria Alonso, which resulted in her leave. Oh, and the intended Big Bad of Marvel Studios’ Multiverse Saga: Kang the Conqueror portrayed by Jonathan Majors? He got himself arrested and was later convicted of assault and harassment and was consequently fired by Marvel Studios. So, yeah. Coming into the release of Deadpool and Wolverine, Marvel Studios very much needed a win.
The first teaser trailer for Deadpool and Wolverine aired during Super Bowl LVIII, revealing that the TVA (Time Variance Authority) would have a significant presence in the film and with Deadpool referring to himself as “Marvel Jesus”, the MCU’s savior. A second trailer aired in the Spring of 2024, set to the tune of Madonna’s Like a Prayer, and featuring lots of Wolverine action. That trailer was followed by a final (and far more emotional) trailer a few days before the release of the film which featured footage from Fox’s previous X-Men films and revealed the return of Daphne Keen’s X-23 from Logan.
The continuity of the Fox X-Men film Universe is more than a little complicated, and things were even further complicated with the introduction of the version of Deadpool that was introduced in 2016’s Deadpool. Bringing Deadpool into the MCU threatened to complicate the MCU narrative as well, as getting a grip on how Deadpool works as a character within a Cinematic world is quite complex due to the character’s self-awareness and frequent fourth wall breaks, which are traits that are true to the comics. Essentially, Deadpool not only knows that he is in movies and that there is an audience watching him, but he is also specifically aware of Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds as actors and of Green Lantern and X-Men Origins: Wolverine as films and of Kevin Feige as a Marvel Studios executive. Each of these things are referenced by Deadpool in his films. From a narrative standpoint, Deadpool is actively being filmed by someone and he knows it. He also understands that what is being filmed is going to be shown to audiences like us. He talks directly to us at different points in his movies. The filmmakers never try and explain how all of this works, and it’s the same way in the comics too, where Deadpool knows that he is a comic book character and that there are readers reading about his exploits through that medium. In the comics, Deadpool blames the pain that is his existence on his “writers” while chastising his readers for being entertained by it all. Meanwhile, in the films, Deadpool knows who Ryan Reynolds is, but he does not seem to understand that he is Ryan Reynolds, though he seems to understand that he does resemble Reynolds in an uncanny way. Some of these themes were addressed in a rather clever way in Marvel Studios’ 2022 Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which featured a character in Jennifer Walters / She- Hulk that also (like in the comics) realizes that she is a character within a story. In She-Hulk, Jen (like Deadpool) understands and acknowledges that she is part of a Cinematic production. Hers is a TV series of which she is the star. In the ninth episode of that series, She-Hulk literally breaks the fourth wall, crashing through the Disney+ menu screen and essentially leaving the Universe in which her show is set and entering another Universe in which her show is produced. This Universe very much resembles our Universe (the real world), complete with a production company called Marvel Studios producing a She-Hulk television series of which She-Hulk is the star. Interestingly, just as is the case with Deadpool, Jen does not profess to be actress Tatiana Maslany portraying the She-Hulk character. She thinks that she is Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk and she physically confronts the writers of her show over the events of the series, asking them in no uncertain terms to change her narrative. This leads to She-Hulk encountering an advanced Artificial Intelligence program known as K.E.V.I.N. (a loose adaptation of the real-life head of Marvel Studios and architect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Kevin Feige). K.E.V.I.N. defends its narrative, explaining that everything is done in an effort to cater to the viewing audience, but ultimately changes things up for Jen, who returns to the Universe that her show is set in to a great deal of sudden and virtually unexplained changes. The way I interpret the K.E.V.I.N. reveal is that it essentially reveals that the MCU is a Simulated Reality. Jen (due to what K.E.V.I.N. later labels as a “glitch”) somehow became aware of her surroundings as well as the nature of her reality as best as she could understand it. It would seem that this occurred after she became a Hulk, and Deadpool seems to be in the same sort of boat, with his mutation being the trigger, as seen in 2016’s Deadpool.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
In Deadpool and Wolverine, the TVA (Time Variance Authority) are prominently featured. The TVA were introduced into the MCU in the 2021 Disney+ series Loki. The TVA is an organization that was founded by the entity known as He Who Remains. Their purpose is to police the Sacred Timeline; a series of Parallel Realities that embodied a preordained “proper” Flow of Time, as determined by He Who Remains. The purpose behind the esteemed integrity of the Realities that comprised the Sacred Timeline was to, according to He Who Remains, ensure that another Multiversal War never comes to pass. He Who Remains ended the first Multiversal War by weaponizing the Cloud Monster known as Alioth and then isolating the carefully chosen remnants of the Timelines that managed to survive it and (through the all-important Temporal Loom) weaving those Timelines into what he deemed to be the best possible Flow of Time; a Flow of Time that would not produce a Variant of Himself, for it was His Variants that caused the first Multiversal War, and threatened to bring about the end of … well. everything! The TVA was founded through the technological brilliance of He Who Remains and its Agents were plucked from the Sacred Timeline and brainwashed, then indoctrinated in the dogma of the TVA; taught that they were created by a trio of Space Lizards known as The Timekeepers towards the purpose of maintaining the integrity of the Sacred Timeline. Doing this was primarily accomplished through the act of “pruning”; a nice way of saying purging. Whenever someone purposefully or obliviously strayed from their predetermined path, a “Nexus Event” was registered, and they were consequently “pruned”, and their Timeline was reset in order to prevent a new Branched Timeline from spawning from off the Sacred Timeline, filled with a multitude of Variants boasting Free Will. Having (usually unknowingly) committed what was deemed a crime against the Sacred Timeline, the ‘Variant” (as labeled by the TVA) was arrested and taken before a TVA Judge, after which they were apparently either recruited by the TVA or (as was usually the case) sent to the Void at the End of Time where they served as food for the aforementioned Alioth.
This was the way of things for untold eons, but the constrained (by He Who Remains) Multiverse persistently tried to break free through manifestations of chaos. More often than not, this was achieved through countless versions of Loki, the Asgardian God of Mischief! Loki’s were more likely to defy their destiny than any other entity due to their mischievous and rebellious nature, and for this reason, nearly no single entity had been pruned by the TVA more than Loki’s, and ultimately, a couple of specific Loki’s would undo the life’s work of He Who Remains and consequently change the Marvel Cinematic Universe forever. The first was Loki Variant L1190, who adopted the name “Sylvie.” She was a female version of the God of Mischief that was grew to boast heroic ambition … a betrayal of her destiny. Sylvie was arrested by the TVA when she was a child and her Reality was pruned. Before she could be pruned though, she fought her way to an escape and lived a life on the run for an amount of time that is impossible to calculate, hiding out in various apocalypses and plotting to wage war against the Time Variance Authority, with hopes of ending the lives of the entities behind it all.
The other was Loki Variant L1130. This Loki Variant was created when The Avengers of the 616-Universe carried out their Time Heist in order to undo what the Cosmic Warlord Thanos had done to their Reality (Snapping away half of all life by wielding the combined power of six ancient relics known as Infinity Stones). Approved by the TVA, this mission to travel back in time and collect the Infinity Stones before Thanos could, was successful in reversing Thanos’ Snap, but their time traveling resulted in the creation of several Branched Timelines that came to be upon their respective arrivals in the past from the future. Though Bruce Banner reasoned that these Timelines could and would be corrected if the Stones were returned to their rightful places at the moment that they were taken, some unforeseen events transpired along the way, such as Loki confiscating the Cosmic Cube known as the Tesseract and using it to escape Avengers custody. This was a direct violation of the “proper” Flow of Time, as Loki was intended to be sent back to Asgard with his adopted brother Thor, sentenced to live out his life in the Asgardian dungeons by his adopted father Odin, and inadvertently cause the death of his beloved adopted mother Frigga, before teaming up with Thor during Ragnarok and ultimately dying at the hands of Thanos. This was the “proper” Flow of Time. Loki existed so that others could become the best versions of themselves. This was Loki’s destiny.
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Hearing all of this from TVA Agent Mobius and seeing how his life was supposed to play out led to a series of unintended events (or intended, if you believe He Who Remains), that saw Loki align with and fall in love with Sylvie, venture to the Void where he met several of his previously pruned Variants, befriend Mobius, tamed Alioth, and then confronted He Who Remains with Sylvie. From there, He Who Remains offered Loki and Sylvie the chance to replace him atop the TVA, insisting that He was a necessary evil and that without the TVA, Multiversal War would be imminent. While this changed nothing for Sylvie, it gave Loki pause, and this disagreement between one person that cannot trust and another than can never be trusted, led to Sylvie kicking Loki through a Time Door (after an impassioned kiss) and slaying He Who Remains. Loki ended up landing in the past at the TVA long before he ever met Mobius, sending him on a Journey into Mystery, through which he desperately sought a way to prevent the preprogrammed (by He Who Remains) destruction of the Temporal Loom (due to an infinitely Branching Multiverse) and the consequent resetting of … well, everything!
Loki ultimately decides to allow the Temporal Loom to overload and evolves into the heroic God that he always strived to be, imbuing the many dying Timelines with his power and reviving them, refashioning the Sacred Timeline into a vast Multiversal Tree in the image of the Asgardian World Tree: Ygdrasil! Loki would take the seat once occupied by He Who Remains at the End of Time as the God of Stories, bestowing Free Will upon each and every Timeline that comprises his Multiversal Tree. Deadpool and Wolverine seems to imply that Earth-10005 (the designated numerical Universal code of the films that Fox’s 13 X-Men movies are set in) is a part of this Multiversal Tree just like Earth-838 (the Reality in which 616-Wanda Maximoff possessed the body of her Multiversal counterpart and murdered The Illuminati, as seen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), and Earth-688 (the Universe from which Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock / Venom crossed over into the MCU 616-Universe, as seen in Venom: Let There Be Carnage). Loki’s TVA no longer prunes Variants or Timelines and is instead focused on eliminating potential threats posed by Variants of He Who Remains, hoping that such action will prevent the Multiversal War that He Who Remains promised.
In Deadpool and Wolverine, actress Emma Corrin portrays Cassandra Nova, the primary antagonist of the film. The character was created by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly for Marvel Comics in 2001, debuting in New X-Men # 114. Cassandra is the biological twin sister of Charles Xavier and is something known as a Mummudrai and she boasts powerful psychic abilities, akin to Charles. In one of Marvel’s wilder origin stories, Cassandra attempted to kill Charles while they were both in their mother’s womb, but Charles successfully defended himself and Cassandra was delivered stillborn. Cassandra’s spirit somehow managed to survive and to eventually create a body for herself.
Deadpool and Wolverine is the 34th MCU theatrical release produced by Marvel Studios. Deadpool and Wolverine is furthermore Marvel Studios’ first Rated-R theatrical release and 2nd MCU production intended for mature audiences following 2024’s Disney+ series Echo. Deadpool and Wolverine marks Hugh Jackman’s landmark 10th appearance as Logan / Wolverine in live action films following X-Men, X2: X-Men: United, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class, The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Logan.
Deadpool and Wolverine achieved the highest-grossing opening weekend for an R-rated film in the history of Cinema, grossing over $200 million in the United States and over $400 million in worldwide totals. This made Deadpool and Wolverine the sixth best opening all-time for a Marvel Studios MCU production, following Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
In Deadpool and Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds’ Wase Wilson / Deadpool frequently refers to himself as “Marvel Jesus”, suggesting that he has come to save the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Though this is used as a meta joke, Deadpool’s nickname may actually be appropriate, given the success of his film. Deadpool and Wolverine was Marvel Studios’ first theatrical release since The Marvels, which grossed a mere $206 million worldwide, the lowest grossing MCU film ever produced by Marvel Studios. Releasing eight months later, Deadpool and Wolverine doubled the box office take of The Marvels in its first week and became the first Marvel Studios film to gross $1 billion since Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021, emerging as Marvel Studios’ 11th billion-dollar film following The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Deadpool and Wolverine furthermore established itself as the highest grossing R-rated movie of all-time and the seventh highest grossing Marvel Studios MCU film ever.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
My Deadpool and Wolverine Review
This is a SPOILER REVIEW of Marvel Studios’ Deadpool and Wolverine. If you do not wish to be SPOILED, please STOP READING now and come back after you’ve seen the movie if you don’t want to be SPOILED!!!
One thing coming into this film that was proudly promised by all involved was that the end of 2017’s Logan and the conclusion to the story of that version of Wolverine which had entertained audiences for 17-years, would not be undone. All parties involved stayed true to that promise, but that never meant that Deadpool wasn’t going to have some fun with it! Deadpool and Wolverine opens in that snowy forest where The Wolverine (Weapon X) took his last breath, dying while holding the hand of his daughter Laura (X-23). There, Deadpool, convinced that Logan can’t actually die, digs up the rotting corpse of The Wolverine, only to discover that yes, Logan really is dead and there is no coming back. As a frustrated Deadpool comes to terms with this disturbing fact, he proceeds to carry out a disturbing act when he is confronted by Agents of the TVA. To the tune of Bye Bye Bye by *NSYNC, Deadpool desecrates Wolverine’s corpse, wielding his adamantium bones as weapons against the TVA Agents. As the fight escalates, Deadpool turns to narrator and takes us as viewers back to how and why he found himself at that grave in search of The Wolverine.
Flashback to the Spring of 2018, mere weeks before Thanos’ invasion of Earth and we see Wade Wilson in the MCU 616-Universe! Yes, this historic moment actually happens near the beginning of the film! At the end of Deadpool 2, Wade commandeered Cable’s Time Travel device and proceeded to make several changes to his Timeline, undoing a lot of the recent tragedy that had befallen him. I was under the assumption heading into this movie that Deadpool’s actions would result in his encounter with the TVA, but as it turns out, TVA Agent Paradox couldn’t have cared less about Deadpool’s antics. More on that in a bit.
Deadpool ended up using Cable’s device to jump to the MCU 616-Universe, venturing to Avengers Tower with hopes of meeting Tony Stark / Iron Man and of being welcomed to join The Avengers. This has become the primary goal in Deadpool’s life, and it is what drives him. He wants to be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he wants to be a hero. An Avenger. Instead of meeting with Tony Stark however, Wade meets with Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan and Happy isn’t very impressed by Wade nor his resume. Hogan denies Deadpool a place on the team (which looking back, sure could have used him around this time) and a dejected Wade jumps back to his Timeline: Universe-10005, where he fumbles through depression and lack of motivation, ultimately taking a job as a used car salesman and losing his relationship with Vanessa due to his overbearing lack of ambition.
Everything changes for Deadpool however, when the TVA come knocking at his door, interrupting his birthday party that his friends Vanessa, Peter, Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Yukio, Blind Al, Dopinder, Shatterstar, and Buck (characters that everyone who saw the first two Deadpool movies should recognize) had thrown for him. Wade is swiftly taken into TVA custody after mistaking the Agents for hired entertainment at his party and he is taken before TVA Agent Paradox.
Paradox explains to Wade that he wants to hire Deadpool to destroy the 10005-Universe, or more directly, put said Universe out of Paradox’s misery. For Paradox has been assigned to oversee the imminent destruction of the 100005-Universe, which has already commenced and could take up to 2,000 years to finish, according to Paradox. The reason for this has nothing to do with anything that Wade has done. It’s actually due to the death of Wolverine. As it turns out, Wolverine is something called an “Anchor Being”, something that every Universe has and someone who’s life is essential to the continued existence of their Universe. This more or less serves as a meta commentary from Marvel Studios to suggest that Fox’s X-Men film Universe could never have survived without a Wolverine, and in-Universe, it’s quite literal. Earth-10005 was doomed the moment that Logan took his final breath. Agent Paradox offers Wade a life upon the Sacred Timeline and the chance to become an Avenger with it if he takes the job, going so far as to show Deadpool video montages of MCU characters (most notably Wade’s personal hero Captain America, who Wade gleefully salutes) and even a moment from Wade’s presumed future in which he appears to be dying while being comforted by Thor!
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Obviously, Deadpool wants for all of this to be real, and there is a remarkable moment in which he literally commandeers the lens through which we as viewers are watching and denounces Fox before exclaiming that he’s “going to Disneyland.” Deadpool is enthusiastically fitted for a new super suit and armed with adamantium swords, but to say that he is deeply troubled by the nature of the job would be a gross understatement, as the 10005-Universe is Wade’s native Timeline and more importantly, where everyone important to him actively resides. So, this is a no-go for Wade Wilson, and after breaking Paradox’s nose, Wade commandeers a TemPad with hopes of traversing the Multiverse in search of a new Wolverine that can replace his Timeline’s departed Anchor.
We see several Wolverine Variants during Wade’s journey, with most of them portrayed by Hugh Jackman, including a comic book accurate short version, and Wade also meets a Wolverine Variant portrayed by Warner Brothers’ former Superman: Henry Cavill, and yes, Wade does take a moment to throw a little shade at DC! We also get a far-too-brief tease of a Wolverine vs Hulk fight, complete with Hulk’s face reflected in Wolverine’s claws; one of the most iconic comic book images in the history of Marvel! Ultimately, Wade lands on the Wolverine Variant that he thinks can serve his purpose and takes the Logan Variant back to the TVA. There, Agent Paradox scoffs at Wade’s efforts, labeling this particular Wolverine as the “worst” Wolverine Variant of all, hinting at the fact that he’d let his entire home Universe down and had been reduced to a drunken and embittered recluse. A confrontation soon brews, and both Deadpool and his Wolverine of choice are pruned and transported to the Void.
There, Wade and Logan fight it out in violent and gory fashion and soon encounter A LOT of faces that will be familiar to Fox X-Men film fans! There’s Tyler Mane reprising his role as Sabretooth from 2000’s X-Men along with Toad, there’s Kelly Hu reprising her role as Deathstrike from X2: X-Men United, there’s Aaron Stanford reprising his role as Pyro from X2 and The Last Stand, Jason Flemyng reprising his role as Azazel from X-Men: First Class, and there’s the Juggernaut (presented in the spirit of the version of the character seen in X-Men: The Last Stand, but portrayed by Aron W. Reed), plus more! These villains all work for a powerful woman named Cassandra Nova who has managed to tame Alioth while maintaining a working agreement with the TVA that allows her to essentially rule the Void. Cassandra is an immensely powerful psychic, and she is the biological sister of some Multiversal Variant of Charles Xavier.
Wolverine swiftly decapitates Sabretooth and he and Deadpool encounter a heroic member of the Void’s Resistance against Cassandra, and it’s none other than Chris Evans! In an absolutely perfect sequence, Wade believes that he has found a Variant of Captain America but realizes how wrong that he is upon the words “Flame On!” by Evans. This is not Steve Rogers! It’s Johnny Storm / The Human Torch in a reprisal by Evans of his roles in 2005’s Fantastic Four and 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer! After Johnny is taken down by Pyro, an unimpressed Deadpool is taken into custody and taken to Cassandra along with Johnny Storm and Logan.
Deadpool and Wolverine quickly come to realize just how powerful Cassandra is when she kills The Human Torch in what may be the most disturbing death in the history of Marvel comic book movies. Cassandra does this due to Wade’s ranting about the supposed insults that had been directed at her by Johnny (and this is hilariously played off in the movie’s post-credit scene). Deadpool and Wolverine manage to flee Alith and soon meet their first Deadpool Variants: Dogpool (self-explanatory) and a long-haired, happy-go-lucky Variant portrayed by Ryan Reynolds dubbed “Nicepool.” Our Wade instantly finds himself smitten with the dog and is noticeably annoyed by his long-haired Variant, who bestows a car upon Deadpool and Wolverine that they can use to traverse the Void.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
The car is destroyed when Wade and Logan get into another fight, this one provoked by an extremely cruel and insensitive rant by Wolverine. Following that absolutely gory and brutal showdown, Wade and Logan are taken in by the other members of the Resistance; a team comprised of even more familiar faces belonging to stars of Marvel movies of old! There’s Jennifer Garner reprising her role as Elektra Natchios from 2003’s Daredevil and 2005’s Elektra, there’s Wesley Snipes reprising his role as Blade from 1998’s Blade, 2002’s Blade II, and 2003’s Blade: Trinity (and Deadpool’s reaction to this is wonderful, as Ryan Reynolds co-starred with Snipes in Trinity), there’s Channing Tatum at long last suiting up as Gambit, and there is of course, Daphne Keen’s X-23! Wolverine isn’t too thrilled about the group’s chances, but a heart-to-heart conversation with Laura sways him to assist the heroes. Devising a plan to use Juggernaut’s helmet to neutralize Cassandra’s power, the Resistance brawls with Cassandra’s forces and there is all kinds of destruction and bloodshed and death! Meanwhile, Logan and Wade make their way to Cassandra, and she easily tortures the both of them, taking the time to look into Wolverine’s mind where we as viewers learn that back in his native Universe, he had left his X-Men teammates vulnerable to murder while on a bender.
Eventually, Logan and Wade get Juggernaut’s helmet on Cassandra, and they try to negotiate a truce, but she adamantly refuses until Pyro betrays her. After a quite moving heart-to-heart about her brother with Logan, Cassandra presents a Sling Ring to the heroes and uses it to open a portal back to the 10005-Universe in exchange for them having saved her life. Deadpool and Wolverine capitalize on the opportunity just as Alioth closes in, and they return to Wade’s native Timeline. A huge group of Deadpool Variants give chase from the Void however! This leads to an extremely bloody brawl pitting Deadpool and Wolverine against the likes of Lady Deadpool (Blake Lively), Kidpool, Babypool, Headpool, and many, many more. Wade causes the untimely death of Nicepool and giddily reunites with Dogpool (he even attempts to give the headless corpse of Nicepool CPR in a grizzly and funny sequence). What promises to be a never-ending fight ends up ending thanks to the arrival of Peter, who is apparently an inspirational figure to all Deadpool’s! This sequence stopped just short of going too over-the-top and I really enjoyed it, especially the badass slow-motion shot of our Wade and his Logan, complete with The Wolverine at long last donning his traditional cowl from the comics!
Cassandra Nova soon arrives from the Void to Earth-10005 with hopes of commandeering Paradox’s deadly Time Ripper machine and using it to destroy all Realities, sans the Void. After a moving conversation between the two mutant heroes, it takes the combined efforts of Deadpool and Wolverine to stop Cassandra, in what each of them believes to be a sacrificial play. They survive, however, and Paradox is confronted and shut-down by the TVA’s Hunter B-15!
B-15 then rules that Deadpool’s Wolverine can stay within the Earth-10005 Universe, along with X-23 from the Void, while confirming that the sure destruction of Earth-10005 had been reversed! The movie ends on a feel-good note, complete with Wade reuniting with Vanessa!
We then get a credits sequence showing the cast of the X-Men, Wolverine, and Deadpool films over the years, seeing how they grew, aged, and evolved. It was beautiful!
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
I loved Deadpool and Wolverine! I’d waited years to see Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool join the MCU and Hugh Jackman returning as (a) Wolverine made it all the more special! I enjoy Deadpool as a character and Ryan Reynolds is the living embodiment of that character, while Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has meant so very much to the comic book movie genre over the years! 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the Wolverine character and Hugh Jackman has portrayed Logan on film for half of those 50-years!
From the top, this movie had everything that I was hoping for! It was funny, it was surprisingly moving, and it never shied away from not just acknowledging the legacy of the Fox X-Men films, but downright honoring it!
The vast majority of the jokes landed with me, and of course, there were A LOT of jokes! Neither Disney nor Marvel Studios were off-limits! Deadpool called out Marvel Studios’ recent struggles and even bashed the very concept of the Multiverse and how it hasn’t exactly landed with audiences the way that Marvel Studios had hoped, and in one of the more hilarious moments involving Blade, Deadpool subtly alluded to the developmental hell that Marvel Studios’ Blade film has found itself in since being announced 5-years ago.
All of the banter between Logan and Wolverine worked for me. The chemistry between Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds was completely off the charts. You could tell that they were having fun, and you could tell that they cared about these characters and about this movie. The fights were appropriately violent and gritty, and little was left to the imagination. This was guns, and swords, and claws, and blood, and decapitations galore, and I thought it was awesome!
The cameos were a homerun for me! Marvel Studios saved plenty for the movie without spoiling too much in the trailers. Every member of the cast and crew deserve praise for keeping things as close to the vest as they did! I never felt the cameos were gratuitous. Each made sense in terms of serving the narrative and I thought it was a perfect mix in terms of calling back to those early Marvel Studios films that were produced before the birth of the MCU in 2008. It all started with Blade. Elektra was the first Marvel movie to be headlined by a woman. Channing Tatum never got his chance to play Gambit for Fox (in fact, Mahershala Ali is probably starting to feel how Tatum felt once upon a time), and it was cool to see him shine! Daphne Keen coming back as X-23 was a dream come true for me. I loved her in Logan, and I loved her in this! Chris Evans returning as Johnny Storm was probably my favorite part of the film outside of Deadpool and Wolverine!
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
I adored Emma Corrin as Casandra Nova! I am not a huge fan of the character in the comics, though I do really like Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run as a whole. Emma portrayed Cassandra with a lot of confidence and a lot of charisma, and she was one of the highlights of this movie for me. Her nonchalant attitude and coinciding frail emotional state made her a very interesting villain, and the way that she read minds by sticking her hand into people’s heads and torturing their face was really disturbing stuff! One of my few complaints concerning this film is Cassandra’s fate. I think she would have been a really cool character to keep around and maybe to even give a redemption arc following her heart-to-heart with Wolverine, but sadly, that was not to be.
I only have one other complaint about this film, and it’s not the language, as such things don’t offend or bother me. My other complaint is rather the lingering confusion over exactly how the MCU Multiverse does and doesn’t work. Not only did Deadpool and Wolverine fail to clear up any of what has grown to become a narrative mess, it further muddied the waters with the introduction of the Anchor Being. We now have Anchor Beings (Deadpool and Wolverine) to go along with Nexus Events (Loki), Absolute Points (What If …?), Canon Events (Sony’s Spider-Verse), and Incursions (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). I’m actually beginning to wonder if Marvel Studios executives even know what the rules of their MCU Multiverse are? It certainly doesn’t seem like it at this point, but I’m holding out hope that all of that will become clearer over the course of future stories, and in the end, it’s not something that I’m going to hold against this specific movie, because when all is said and done, this movie did not concern itself with setting up future stories (though it undoubtedly did do that, as no part of me believes that Deadpool and Wolverine aren’t returning), and that is part of its charm!
Deadpool and Wolverine was grounded in its own narrative and its own Cinematic legacy, emphasizing the respective journeys of Deadpool and this castaway Wolverine into selfless heroes and best friends. For all of its gore and satire and cynicism, Deadpool and Wolverine is actually quite a moving and even inspirational tale and I see this ultimately going down as one of the greatest comic book movies ever made in the hearts of many fans. For me, it was a masterpiece and Marvel Studios’ best production since Avengers: Endgame. I can’t wait to watch it again and again!
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Highlights of Deadpool and Wolverine:
Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool
Hugh Jackman is The Wolverine
Deadpool vs Wolverine!
Chemistry Between Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman
Chris Evans as Johnny Storm / The Human Torch
Daphne Keen as Laura / X-23
The Death of Chris Evan’s Johnny Storm / The Human Torch
Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova
Wolverine Decapitates Sabretooth!
So. Much. Humor!
Deadpool and Wolverine vs The Deadpool Corps
Ryan Reynolds as Nicepool
So. Many. Fourth-Wall Breaks!
Lady Deadpool!
X-23 gets through to Wolverine
Dogpool!
Surprising Amount of Heart
Cassandra Nova vs Wolverine!
Hulk vs Wolverine Tease
Deadpool’s Man-Crush on Thor
Henry Cavill as Wolverine!
Deadpool vs the TVA!
Music
Fight Choreography
Deadpool Visits the MCU 616-Universe and Meets Happy Hogan
R-rating Allows Marvel Studios to Leave Nothing to the Imagination!
Hilarious Post-Credits Scene featuring Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm / The Human Torch
Moving Credits Sequence that serves as a fitting tribute to the legacy of the Fox X-Men film Universe
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Notable MCU Concepts and Characters Introduced:
TVA Agent Paradox. Earth-10005 official MCU Multiverse designation. Earth-10005’s Wade Wilson / Deadpool ventures to the MCU 616-Universe in an effort to join The Avengers, bringing his complex Cinematic history with him, canonizing the events of all 13 Fox X-Men, Wolverine, and Deadpool films. Anchor Beings. Wolverine and several of his Multiversal Variants and their respective Realities. Cassandra Nova. Several Multiversal Variants of Deadpool within the Void, along with their respective (pruned) Realities. Several Mutant Multiversal Variants within the Void (including Pyro, Sabretooth, Toad, Deathstrike, Juggernaut, and Azazel), along with their respective (pruned) Realities. Multiversal Variants of Johnny Storm / The Human Torch, Elektra Natchios, Gambit, X-23, and Blade within the Void. The MCU canonization of the events of Fox’s Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer films via Johnny Storm’s history in that Cinematic Universe. The MCU canonization of Fox’s Daredevil and Elektra films via Elektra’s history in that Cinematic Universe. The MCU canonization of New Line Cinema’s Blade films via Blade’s history in that Cinematic Universe. Gambit and his (pruned) Universe. The TVA Time Ripper. Deadpool’s roommate Blind Al. The love of Deadpool’s life: Vanessa Carlysle. Deadpool’s friend and X-Force teammate Peter. Deadpool’s friend Dopinder. Deadpool’s friend Buck. Deadpool’s friends Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Yukio. Deadpool’s friend and X-Force teammate Shatterstar.
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