Warning! This article contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine
Summary
Upon being introduced to the franchise,Deadpool & Wolverineunsurprisingly levels a few jokes at theMCU’s expense and kicks the franchise while it’s down. Despite being Marvel-owned characters, the movie distribution rights to Deadpool, Wolverine, and all of Marvel’s mutant characters were owned by 20th Century Fox until 2019, whenMarvel parent company Disney acquired Fox. This allowed the MCU to finally use the term “mutant,” whereas beforehand traditionally mutant characters like Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were retconned into receiving powers from external sources like the Mind Stone.
Sincethe X-Men moved back to Marvel ownership, Deadpool’s fourth-wall-breaking comments on the situation were inevitable. As expected,Deadpool & Wolverineis rife with Deadpool’s signature irreverence regardingthe MCU and the death of Fox, with Deadpool’s self-ascribed “Marvel Jesus” designation being central to the movie’s overarching narrative. With Marvel Studios itself experiencing a significant bump in an otherwise smooth road so recently, it is no surprise that Deadpool weighed in on the matter and rubbed salt in the wound.
Every Cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine Explained
Deadpool & Wolverine is packed to the brim with cameos from across the entire run of Marvel films, combining the numerous timelines together.
Deadpool & Wolverine Addresses MCU Discourse With Jokes At The Franchise’s Expense
Deadpool joked about Marvel’s recent woes twiceduringDeadpool & Wolverine. The first came as he brought Hugh Jackman’s yellow-clad Wolverine variant to the TVA, lampooning apopularly cited MCU tropewith a “He’s standing right behind me, isn’t he?” joke as Wolverine recovers from his drunken stupor. He follows this by welcoming Wolverine to the MCU, and stating that he is joining at a “low point,“referencing how the Multiverse Saga has been a decidedly mixed bag critically and financially, especially when compared to the Infinity Saga’s Phases 2 and 3.
The second joke came during the movie’s final fight sequence as Deadpool and Wolverine face off againstan army of 100 Deadpool variants. Before the brawl, Deadpool comments on the number of variants andlambastes the Multiverse Saga for comprising “miss after miss,“before championingThe Wizard of Ozas the first and only movie that got the multiverse concept right. While his assigning ofTheWizard of Ozas a multiverse movie is questionable, his observations about the MCU’s multiverse movies are at least somewhat accurate and twist the knife currently embedded in Marvel’s cinematic franchise.
Deadpool & Wolverine Really Is Joining The MCU At Its Lowest Point
As painful as it may be to admit, the MCU truly is at its lowest point,with 2023 housing a particularly prominent string of stumbles. The year was bookended bythe MCU’s lowest-rated movie,Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,and its biggest box office flop,The Marvels.Secret Invasion, meanwhile, which was released in early summer, remainsthe MCU’s lowest-rated show, uniting audiences in their dissatisfaction more than any other MCU offering.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
46%
$464 million
47%
$402 million
52%
62%
$200 million
Thor: Love and Thunder
63%
$761 million
With that in mind, there is no denying the veracity of Deadpool’s “low point” comments. Yet it isn’t as if the MCU hasn’t been here before,with MCU Phase 2 playing host to some of the MCU’s other lowest-rated movies, includingThor: The Dark World,Iron Man 2, andAvengers: Age of Ultron. Given MCU Phase 5 is the halfway point of the Multiverse Saga, as MCU Phase 2 was for the Infinity Saga, a certain measure of franchise fatigue seems par for the course around this time.
Are Deadpool & Wolverine’s Jokes About The MCU Really Fair?
The comments feel particularly unfairwhen considering MCU Phase 5’s successes. The critical failures ofAnt-Man and the Wasp: QuantumaniaandSecret Invasionrisk overshadowing two of the MCU’s most acclaimed releases inGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3andLokiseason 2. Moreover, Deadpool’s comments about the multiverse shtick being an overall failure feel a little out of left field, especially consideringLoki’s laser focus on the concept and the fact thatDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnesswas criticized for not leaning into the titular theme enough.
Spider-Man: No Way Homeremainsthe MCU’s highest-grossing non-Avengers movie, which is largely thanks to the multiverse affording the opportunity to reunite some of the superhero genre’s most beloved characters in one place. Then there is Deadpool’s own movie, which has received critical acclaim and an immense level of hype largely thanks to theDeadpool & Wolverinemultiversal cameos. Deadpool’s jokes are, of course, designed to get a rise, but there is no denying that the “miss after miss” comments aren’t exactly accurate, even if the MCU has released a handful of more noticeable failures in one year.
Deadpool & Wolverine
Cast
A follow-up to the highly successful Deadpool and Deadpool 2 films starring Ryan Reynolds as the Merc with a Mouth. The third film will be the first in the franchise to be developed under the Marvel Studios banner following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox.
