They called the movie Deadpool and Wolverinebut maybe the title should have been Deadpool & Wolverine & Everyone Elseconsidering the number of cameos from characters and actors in it (if you’re reading this, it means you Deadpool and Wolverine news, so you probably already know that).
But beneath all the blunders, the blood, and the cameos (and the blunders about the cameos, and the blood in the blunders, and the cameos with blood), Deadpool and Wolverine says something about interconnected cinema. In making a movie about Deadpool trying to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse, whether they wanted to be or not, the people behind Deadpool and Wolverine made a film about Kang’s inherent flaws and the multiverse ambitions of the MCU.
(Editorial note: This piece contains some serious spoilers for Deadpool and Wolverine.)
Photo: Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios
D&W gives his update on our first-billed hero in flashbacks. For a while before the film began, Wade Wilson had become preoccupied with the need to prove that he “mattered.” Perhaps this stemmed from his girlfriend, Vanessa (although she encourages him to see beyond the idea, so maybe not). Perhaps the blame lies with Cassandra Nova, who manipulates at least part of Wade’s flashback. It’s not entirely clear, which is a theme!
Despite it being Wade’s only motivation, Deadpool and Wolverine doesn’t have much to say about what “mattering” means to Wade. After our respective screenings, my colleagues compared notes; had we missed a line or misinterpreted something? As a longtime comics reader and student of continuity, I felt like I understood the answer, and why it’s worded so flippantly: Wade can’t explain why he cares so much about “mattering,” because he’s the only character in the film who knows he’s in a movie. For better or for worse, which Deadpool and Wolverine By ‘being important’ we mean ‘being part of the most important, ongoing canon’.
Think about it: What does Wade do to try to “matter?” He tries to join the Avengers in the main Marvel universe. When that fails, he’s at a loss—until the TVA tells him about anchor creatures. Without its anchor, a timeline withers and is eventually consigned to the dunghill of time, a story that can no longer be continued or retold. See, anchor creatures are just protagonists, right? That’s what a protagonist is. The character for whom, when their story arc is over, the story ends.
Deadpool is elated, assuming he’s the anchor being of his timeline. He matters! Except, no. Wolverine is the anchor being, and the Wolverine from Wade’s timeline is dead, putting that timeline in jeopardy. This sets up the rest of the film’s questline: Wade searches through various comic book references and cameos in search of a new Wolverine, eventually stranding them both in the time dung heap. There, they encounter a whole bunch of characters who were banished after their respective universes withered away — all castoffs from 20th Century Fox’s Marvel franchises: the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Blade, and Daredevil films.
This collection of customizable misfit toys promises them one more chance to do cool superhero movie stuff before they consign themselves to decomposition by a giant smoke monster.
The story, for all its messiness, has clear metatextual parallels. We have a cast of largely underrated characters (and actors) looking for their moment in the MCU sun. And Deadpool and Wolverine is the conclusion of the 20th Century Fox Marvel films it wants to deliver. The smoke monster is simply the transfer of intellectual property licenses.
Ultimately, Deadpool’s ultimate reward is becoming the anchor being for his particular setting, the new protagonist who saves it from disintegration. He learns to find happiness in mattering only to his close friends, the secondary characters of the Deadpool film franchise. His friends are his universe, in a heartfelt figurative sense, but also in a literal metatextual sense, since, as the narrator and central character of the story, there is no “Deadpool film setting” outside of the people he knows personally. He learns to find happiness and fulfillment outside of being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and by only “mattering”—that is, “being canon”—to his home timeline.
It’s a happy story and a good lesson about cherishing your friends. It’s also a perfect illustration of why Marvel Cinematic Universe’s post-Endgame Attempts to focus everything on the Multiverse haven’t worked yet, and perhaps never will: The MCU is too reliant on the promise that every part of it “matters.”
Ever since Nick Fury uttered the words “Avengers Initiative,” an interconnected canon has been a major draw of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Continuity isn’t the be-all and end-all of storytelling, but Marvel Studios has been spamming the “this is important because it’s connected” messages. this” button in recent years to intermittent results.
The real finale of WandaVisionthe work that completed Scarlet Witch’s descent into outright supervillain status was Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of MadnessThat film promised dire consequences for Doctor Strange’s meddling with Dark Magic and then pushed those consequences onto his next one movie.
And then there’s Kang’s veritable carousel.
When you’re training your audience to invest in a story because it “matters,” introducing the idea of a multiverse is a very tricky business. The concepts of a parallel universe or an alternate timeline are defined by the way they do not connect, and what happens in them does not do affect the main setting. As complicated as it was to have three Spider-Mans in one movie, Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home is very careful to let all of these alternate heroes and villains ultimately serve as emotional development for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Peter Parker, rather than letting those alternate heroes and villains become indispensable forces in the MCU themselves.
The fact that we understand Wade’s need to “matter,” whether it’s a fictional meaning like “doing awesome things” or a metafictional one like “being part of a movie franchise that actually goes somewhere,” shows how intuitive it is to the viewer. We know that unless this Deadpool makes it into the MCU, the Ryan Reynolds version of the character will no longer be seen in films. We know that being part of the main continuity Affairs.
Image: Marvel Studios
So when Loki season 1 introduced Kang the Conqueror, killed him, and promised an even scarier Kang was coming, which was pretty exciting. When Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania Introducing a Kang the Conqueror from another timeline, killing him off, and promising an even scarier Kang was coming was pretty mind-boggling. When Loki season 2 introduced a Kang the Conqueror from another timeline, killed him, and promised, once again, that another Kang the Conqueror, one who would be an Avengers-level threat in his own team-up movie, was in another castle — that is The boy who shouted canon. The only thing that surprises me about Marvel’s transition to Doctor Doom is that it took them so long. Marvel can’t make “MCU connection” the be-all-end-all and then put a character like Kang at the center who’s defined by a million disparate timelines.
Deadpool and Wolverine billed itself as the film that would bring Deadpool to the MCU. He ended up spending about 5 minutes of the film’s runtime in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the rest of it just making fun of it. He ends the film happily in the closed-off 20th Century Fox X-Men setting, and with a behind-the-scenes montage tribute.
That’s great for Wade. But what universe will the heroes of the MCU retreat to, if the Marvel Multiverse continues to play loose with what matters?