In true MCU fashion, Deadpool & Wolverine offers a plethora of exciting twists and surprises that are bound to thrill any die-hard Marvel fan. After several years of anticipation, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine finally appear together on the big screen, this time in a proper MCU movie released after the end of Fox’s extensive X-Men movie franchise. Such a significant event cannot take place with a small scope or a limited cast, which is why only part of Deadpool & Wolverine‘s star-studded cast had been confirmed before the movie’s July 2024 release.

Similar to massive crossover events such as Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, a large portion of the excitement behind Deadpool & Wolverine lies in its spoilers. Returning characters like Aaron Stanford’s Pyro, Tyler Mane’s Sabretooth, and Dafne Keen’s X-23 were revealed gradually to heighten expectations. However, these reveals barely scratched the surface of all that Deadpool & Wolverine had to offer. From completely unexpected cameos to multiverse-defining changes and potential Deadpool & Wolverine sequel teases, Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine is filled to the brim with fan-pleasing surprises.

20Deadpool Tries To Join The Avengers And Happy Hogan Rejects Him

Deadpool Technically Had A Chance To Join The Avengers Before Meeting Wolverin

The only time Deadpool & Wolverine visits the MCU’s Earth-616 is at the beginning, when Deadpool uses Cable’s time travel machine to enter the MCU’s main timeline and apply for a role in the Avengers. Happy Hogan interviews Wade, but ultimately rejects him because Wade wants to become an Avenger to feel better about himself instead of helping others. Although Deadpool insults Happy due to his nerves, Happy motivates Deadpool to keep going and says that the Avengers will keep an eye on him. Iron Man’s second arc reactor and Captain America shield prototype can be spotted in Happy’s office.

This scene takes place in 2018, before the events of Avengers: Infinity War , meaning that Deadpool’s MCU debut technically happened while Tony Stark was still alive and Captain America was still active.

19Deadpool & Wolverine Introduces The Concept Of A Multiversal Anchor Being

Every Universe Has A Central Character Whose Death Signals Annihilation

When TVA agent Paradox brings Deadpool to the TVA headquarters, he explains to Wade that his universe, Earth-10005, is destined to die due to Wolverine’s death in Logan. Acording to Paradox, Hugh Jackman’s original Wolverine is Earth-10005’s “anchor” — an individual who’s so essential to their respective timeline that their death kicks off an inevitable apocalypse, which can take up to two thousand years. Taking this into account, characters like Earth-616’s Iron Man and Tom Hardy’s Venom are candidates for their respective universes’ anchor individuals.

Paradox also tells Deadpool that while his adventures with Cable’s time-travel device were amusing, they weren’t too dangerous for the Sacred Timeline.

18Marvel Confirms That Fox’s X-Men Franchise Is A Single Universe

Fox’s X-Men Timelines Are Suggested To Be A Single Continuity

For years, Fox’s self-contradicting X-Men timeline led fans to theorize that the X-Men movie franchise was actually a collection of different timelines, with Logan taking place in its own separate universe. However, Deadpool & Wolverine acknowledges the events of Logan and the first two Deadpool movies as part of the wider X-Men continuity. Although various inconsistencies warrant the existence of branching and parallel timelines, Deadpool & Wolverine makes it clear that Hugh Jackman’s previous Wolverine performances make up the “anchor” Logan variant, and that Deadpool exists in that main X-Men universe as well — regardless if that retroactively creates plot holes in previous X-Men movies.

The first two Deadpool movies take place in an ambiguous setting. They’re set in the present day, but the young X-Men cast makes a cameo, Yukio is different from her The Wolverine variant, and Colossus is different from his original X-Men trilogy variant.

17Paradox Wants To Fast-Track The Destruction Of Dying Timelines

TVA Agent Paradox Created The Time Ripper To Supposedly Improve Loki’s Sacred Timeline

Agent Paradox shows his true colors when he reveals to Deadpool that he wants to speed up Earth-10005’s destruction in order to rise through the TVA’s ranks instead of watching Deadpool’s universe wither away and die for millennia. To achieve this, Paradox created a “Time Ripper”, which accelerated the process and doomed every single inhabitant of the original X-Men universe without their knowledge. When activated, the Time Ripper’s effects on Earth-10005 look quite a lot like Loki season 2’s spaghettification — the very fabric of reality ripping itself apart as it gets erased out of existence.

Paradox plans and executes his plan secretly, as he’s disappointed that the TVA’s new administration has abandoned brutal yet effective practices like timeline pruning.

16Henry Cavill Appears As A Multiverse Variant Of Wolverine

Hugh Jackman Is No Longer The Only Actor To Play Wolverine In Live-Action

When Deadpool tries to find a Wolverine variant who can replace the anchor Logan, he comes across several Wolverine variants who aren’t suitable for the job. Deadpool meets a Wolverine under his tuxedo-wearing Patch identity, a Wolverine who’s in the middle of fighting the Hulk while wearing a tan-and-brown costume, a short Wolverine, a Wolverine who’s crucified in a field of skulls (reminiscent of Logan’s torture in X-Men #251), and an especially violent Wolverine who’s wearing his comic-book Apocalypse suit. Most notably, Deadpool meets “Callverine” — a rugged Wolverine variant played by Henry Cavill, who punches Deadpool in the face. 

Deadpool throws a jab at DC when he realizes one Wolverine is played by Henry Cavill, offering him a better role at Marvel. Deadpool also mocks The Rock’s “hierarchy of power” promotion for Black Adam and describes Wolverine’s masked look as a Batman who can actually move his neck.

15Hugh Jackman Is Made Shorter With CGI To Match Wolverine’s Comic-Accurate Height

Marvel Finally Acknowledges How Tall Hugh Jackman Is Compared To The Comics’ Wolverine

 

One of the Wolverine variants Deadpool meets in his quest is a Logan who looks almost exactly like the anchor Wolverine, with the caveat that he’s just as short as the comic book character. In the source material, Wolverine is supposed to be around 5’3″ (1.60m), almost one full foot shorter than Hugh Jackman, who’s 6’2″ (1.88 m). Deadpool & Wolverine‘s short Wolverine variant might be even shorter than 5’3″, which makes for a jarring picture due to Hugh Jackman’s body proportions.

Apart from the actor’s then-narrow filmography, Hugh Jackman’s height was subject of doubt and criticism back when he was cast as Wolverine for 2000’s X-Men .

14Chris Evans Returns To The MCU As The Human Torch (& Gets Killed)

Chris Evans’ Human Torch Is Deadpool & Wolverine’s Unexpected Comedy Relief Character

Another exciting cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine comes courtesy of Chris Evans, who makes an epic entrance defending Deadpool and Wolverine from Cassandra Nova’s henchmen. When Deadpool gets ready to witness Evans’ character say “Avengers assemble!”, he realizes that Evans isn’t playing Captain America; rather, Chris Evans reprises his Johnny Storm a.k.a. Human Torch role from Tim Story’s Fantastic Four movies. Unfortunately, Pyro effortlessly puts out Johnny Storm’s fire powers, and Cassandra Nova rips Johnny’s skin and flesh off after Deadpool reveals that Johnny insulted her.

Deadpool & Wolverine marks Chris Evans’ first MCU appearance after Steve Rogers’ retirement in Avengers: Endgame , opening the door for future MCU roles in the form of other Captain America or Human Torch variants.

13Jennifer Garner’s Elektra Returns In Deadpool & Wolverine

Elektra Is A Deadlier Assassin Under Cassandra Nova’s Reign

Deadpool and Wolverine meet the few surviving members of the resistance in the Void, starting with Elektra. Twenty-one years after her Marvel debut in Daredevil and twenty years after her own spinoff movie in Elektra,Jennifer Garner returns as the assassin Elektra Natchios in Deadpool & Wolverine. This time, Elektra wears a dark suit and sports strands of gray hair, and she’s visibly much deadlier than ever before. According to her and her allies, a Daredevil variant who worked alongside them perished some time before Deadpool & Wolverine’s arrival.

Ben Affleck’s Daredevil witnessed Elektra’s death at the hands of Bullseye in Daredevil (2003).

12Wesley Snipes Returns As Blade Despite Previous Friction With Ryan Reynolds

Wesley Snipes’ Blade Makes His On-Screen Debut In The MCU Before Mahershala Ali’s

The most surprising actor return in Deadpool & Wolverine might be Wesley Snipes’, who reprises his Blade role twenty-six years after his Marvel debut. In 2004, Blade Trinity‘s production became infamous for its behind-the-scenes drama, which led to a feud between Wesley Snipes and Ryan Reynolds, the latter of whom was playing Hannibal King. Add to that the fact that Wesley Snipes retired from acting, making his Deadpool & Wolverine role all the more surprising. Snipes’ Blade sports white strands of hair and at one point repeats his iconic line, “some motherf*ers are always trying to ice-skate uphill”.

Wesley Snipes’ Blade brags that, unlike the Punisher, there will always be one Blade. Deadpool, knowing about Mahershala Ali’s upcoming Blade movie, sneers at the camera.

11Channing Tatum’s Gambit Finally Gets To Play Gambit In Deadpool & Wolverine

Channing Tatum Fulfills His Dream To Play A Comic-Accurate Gambit In The MC

Another member of the Void’s resistance is Remy LeBeau a.k.a. Gambit, played by Channing Tatum. For years, Channing Tatum wanted to play Gambit on the big-screen, reaching the point that a full Gambit solo movie was set to be produced by Fox with Tatum in the lead role. However, the plans ultimately didn’t pan out. In Deadpool & Wolverine, Channing Tatum’s Gambit insists that his potential is still undiscovered, and his unintelligible French accent is a running gag among the Void’s survivors. Tatum’s Gambit is remarkably powerful and faithful to the source material.

Fox’s Gambit movie was cancelled by Disney in May 2019 after more than five years in development hell.

10X-23 Survives The Events Of Deadpool & Wolverine

Dafne Keen’s Laura Kinney Can Appear In Future MCU Movies

The final member of the Deadpool & Wolverine‘s resistance team is its leader, Dafne Keen’s Laura Kinney a.k.a. X-23. This older X-23 still retains the sunglasses she got from a gas store in Logan, and she explains to the new Wolverine that her Logan variant saved her life and the lives of many children. These details suggest that this X-23 variant is the same from James Mangold’s Logan, which only raises questions about her presence in the Void. Regardless, Deadpool asks B-15 if she can save X-23 from the Void, and Laura joins Deadpool’s friend group at the end.

Dafne Keen’s X-23 variant in Deadpool & Wolverine may be the same variant featured in Logan , as the TVA likely wouldn’t allow two X-23 variants to coexist in Earth-10005. Why X-23 was pruned is a mystery, however.

Deadpool & Wolverine didn’t come cheap, so the latest MCU movie needs to make a significant impact at the box office to be considered successful.

9Many Deadpool & Wolverine’s X-Men Cameo Characters Die Painful Deaths

Cassandra Nova’s Henchmen Become Cannon Fodder In The Void

Most cameo characters meet a tragic end in Deadpool & Wolverine. Johnny Storm gets torn to shreds by Cassandra Nova, Sabretooth gets decapitated by Wolverine, Juggernaut gets his feet sliced off by X-23, and Pyro gets his neck broken by Cassandra Nova. According to X-23’s resistance group, Cassandra Nova crushed Magneto’s skull and melted his helmet, while the Punisher, Quicksilver, and Daredevil died off-screen. Other minor characters such as Toad, Azazel, Lady Deathstrike, the Russian, and Callisto seem to die when Alioth arrives at Cassandra’s base.

Cassandra Nova mentions a dead Doctor Strange variant, and Wolverine reveals that his universe’s X-Men died when humanity attacked mutants.

8The Entire Deadpool Corps Works For Cassandra Nova

Deadpool Fights His Own Variants On Earth-10005

When Deadpool and Wolverine go back to Earth-10005, they have to face an army of Deadpool variants: the Deadpool Corps, who were ordered to kill Prime Deadpool and Wolverine by Cassandra Nova. The Deadpool Corps is led by Lady Deadpool, who’s accompanied by Kidpool, Headpool, Babypool, and Cowboypool. Despite knowing that he and Wolverine have a healing factor, Prime Deadpool uses Nicepool as a human shield and steals Dogpool from him. Prime Deadpool and Wolverine slice through the Deadpool Corps, but they all regenerate almost instantly. Fortunately, Peter arrives to calm everyone down, as every Deadpool in the multiverse has a Peter variant they love and admire.

Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine wears his mask for the first time ever to fight the Deadpool Corps on Earth-10005.

7Blake Lively Plays Lady Deadpool

Taylor Swift Was Speculated To Be The Deadpool Variant

Much speculation surrounded Lady Deadpool, as theories about the actor playing her abounded. Some said that Taylor Swift would make a surprise appearance as the female Deadpool variant, while others theorized that Ryan Reynolds’ wife Blake Lively was under the mask. Some even said that Ryan Reynolds himself was likely to be playing Lady Deadpool. It turns out that Lady Deadpool never takes off her mask in Wolverine & Deadpool, but the credits confirm that she is played, or at least voiced, by Blake Lively.

In the comics, Deadpool joins forces with Lady Deadpool and assembles the Deadpool Corps to defend the multiverse from complete annihilation.

6Cassandra Nova Dies Trying To Destroy The Multiverse

Cassandra Nova Ends Up Helping Deadpool & Wolverine Destroy The Time Ripper

Wolverine spares Cassandra Nova’s life in the Void, arguing that Charles Xavier would have given his twin sister a second chance. Yet, Cassandra seems to be genetically destined to be evil, and she travels to Earth-10005 to use the Time Ripper by herself, with the goal of wreaking havoc on Deadpool’s timeline and the whole multiverse. Paradox explains to Deadpool how Cassandra can be stopped: someone needs to stop the machine from within, getting disintegrated in the process. Wolverine decides to sacrifice himself to save Earth-10005, but Deadpool arrives to help him, leading the machine to disintegrate Cassandra Nova instead.

The Time Ripper may work with the same technology as the Temporal Loom, but instead of controlling timelines, it accelerates their decay.

5Loki’s Hunter B-15 Arrests TVA Agent Paradox

Paradox Is The Newest TVA Worker To Be Dismissed From His Duties

Wunmi Mosaku reprises her role as B-15, who was ascended at the end of the Loki season 2 finale. B-15 is informed that Paradox has created an unsanctioned machine to destroy timelines, and she arrives to capture him at the end of Deadpool & Wolverine. Deadpool asks B-15 to save X-23 from the Void as a reward for thwarting Paradox’s plans and she fulfills his wish. When Deadpool asks her to rewrite Wolverine’s timeline, she responds that Wolverine’s tragic backstory made him a hero, meaning that there’s nothing to fix.

Paradox probably received a less brutal punishment for his actions than Judge Ravonna Renslayer, who was sent to the Void in the Loki season 2 finale.

4Deadpool Befriends Wolverine And Takes Him To His Universe

The X-Men Universe Has A Wolverine Once Again

Having accepted his past as an unchangeable part of himself, Wolverine agrees to travel to Earth-10005 with Deadpool. There, the two get ready to part ways, but Deadpool feels like he can’t leave Wolverine alone. So, Wade invites Wolverine to his home and introduces him to all his friends. Thanks to B-15, X-23 is also there, which suggests that she will bond with this new Wolverine in Deadpool’s universe. Given that all Deadpool characters survive the events of Deadpool & Wolverine (including Domino and Cable, who don’t appear on screen), future MCU movies can always bring them all back.

Although he isn’t Earth-10005’s original anchor, Hugh Jackman’s new Wolverine variant is serving the same purpose.

3Countless X-Men Timelines Still Exist Somewhere Out There

Deadpool & Wolverine Keeps The X-Men’s Many Timelines Intact For Future Crossovers

Despite what Deadpool & Wolverine‘s multiversal premise suggested and what Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox implied, the entirety of Fox’s X-Men movie universe remained intact by the end of Deadpool and Wolverine’s first MCU adventure. This leaves the door open for new X-Men crossovers and cameos in future MCU projects, as well as a potential integration of Earth-10005’s X-Men characters into Earth-616. Other branches of the X-Men universe, like the ones The Marvels‘s Beast and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ Professor X come from, could eventually send more mutant variants to the MCU’s multiversal conflicts.

The true end of Fox’s X-Men timelines could still come in Avengers: Secret Wars , which could rewrite every existing timeline and reboot the entire MCU multiverse.

2Deadpool & Wolverine’s Mid-Credits Scene Pays Homage To Fox’s X-Men Franchise

Marvel Studios Honors Fox’s Two-Decade X-Men Franchise With A Heartfelt Tribute Montage

Instead of an upcoming MCU project’s tease or set-up, Deadpool & Wolverine‘s mid-credits scene is a montage sequence that pays homage to Fox’s X-Men movie franchise, as well as other Marvel movies made by 20th Century Fox such as Elektra, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four: Rise off the Silver Surfer, and Fant4stic. This heartfelt tribute to Fox’s legacy is composed of behind-the-scenes footage and bloopers from all of these movies.

At one point, there were plans at 20th Century Fox to make a crossover between the X-Men movie franchise and the Fantastic Four, specifically Josh Trank’s version of Marvel’s First Family.

1Deadpool & Wolverine’s Post-Credits Scene Is A Quick Gag Involving Johnny Storm

Deadpool Is Vindicated By Johnny Storm’s Comments About Cassandra Nova

Deadpool & Wolverine‘s post-credits scene ends the movie with a final gag that calls back to Johnny Storm’s gory death at the hands of Cassandra Nova. In it, Deadpool uses the TVA’s monitors to replay his conversation with Johnny while captured, revealing that Johnny did insult Cassandra with the exact same words that Deadpool used. This one time, Deadpool wasn’t exaggerating when quoting the late Human Torch.

Johnny Storm’s foul-mouthed role in Deadpool & Wolverine shares some similarities with Chris Evans’ cameo in Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynold’s Free Guy , where he says “what the sh*t” as he sees Reynolds’ Guy wield Captain America’s shield.

Deadpool throws a jab at DC when he realizes one Wolverine is played by Henry Cavill, offering him a better role at Marvel. Deadpool also mocks The Rock’s “hierarchy of power” promotion for Black Adam and describes Wolverine’s masked look as a Batman who can actually move his neck.