The release ofDeadpool & Wolverinein summer 2024 saw the closing of a chapter in superhero movie history. A conscious effort to bring Ryan Reynolds' beloved Merc With a Mouth into the MCU fold, it serves as a self-aware sendoff to Marvel’s pre-Disney properties in the wake of the media conglomerate’s merger with 20th Century Fox, as Disney continues to tie up loose ends in its quest to control all of Marvel’s many characters. With the purchasing of Fox, Disney finally took control of the X-Men franchise, whose early success essentially paved the way for the current superhero movie era that Disney continues to dominate.
Before Disney bought the Marvel brand back in 2009, the company sold the film rights to their many characters to outside studios, including Sony, who had control of Spider-Man, and Fox, who enjoyed a solid run of X-Men films for nearly two decades beginning in 2000. They managed to hold onto the rights even as Disney turned Marvel Studios into a global powerhouse, releasing many ofthe most profitable movies ever madeand essentially defining the template for the modern superhero film. But Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox in 2019 was essentially the final nail in the coffin of the studio’s superhero output.Deadpool & Wolverinedoesn’t just make reference to this merger, but makes it into a major element of the story.
Deadpool & Wolverine
20th Century Fox in the Void
First introduced inDisney+‘sLokiseason one, the Void is a sort of dumping ground used by the Time Variance Authority for any pesky variants that cause too much chaos in their timelines.Deadpool & Wolverinetakes this idea and turns it into a meta-commentary on the Disney/Fox merger, a place where Disney is happy to dump all the properties released before they took control.
When Deadpool and Logan are sent to the void, they meet characters from several of Marvel’s pre-Disney projects, fromFantastic Four’sJohnny Storm (Chris Evans, poking fun at his inauspicious Marvel debut) toX2: X-Men United’sPyro (Aaron Stanford), eventually joining forces with an alliance of Elektra (Jennifer Garner), Blade (Wesley Snipes), X-23 (Dafne Keen), and Gambit (Channing Tatum). Not all of these projects are fondly remembered today; or in the case of Tatum’s Gambit,never existed at all. Butthey serve as an interesting time capsule of a superhero movie era in its infancy, when the successful formula defined by Marvel hadn’t quite solidified, and when a comic book adaptation was considered anything but a surefire box office hit.
This could be seen as just a cheeky bit of self-aware fun, a very on-brand move fromDeadpool’screative team, and of course it is. Butit also serves as a gentle poke in the ribs of Deadpool’s new corporate overlords, a massive multimedia juggernaut intent on snatching up any lucrative Marvel properties it doesn’t already own. Disney has shown it’s keen to control its franchises’ continuities in the past — declaring that nothing outside the twoStar Warsfilm trilogies is considered canon, for example — so it makes sense that they would want to metaphorically bury all of these projects, even the ones considered successful likeX 2orLogan.
The Most Unexpected Cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine
In Deadpool & Wolverine, there’s action, there’s nostalgia, there’s crude language, and graphic violence. And there are a lot of unexpected cameos.
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Salutes a Bygone Era
Rather than just nod to Marvel’s pre-Disney cinematic past,Deadpool & Wolverineserves as a tribute to the interpretations of characters that weren’t as lucky as Deadpoolto be enfolded into the MCU. The film gives Elektra, Blade, X-23, and Gambit a heroic sendoff helping Deadpool and Logan escape the Void, symbolically acknowledging the heroes that came before to allow the MCU to become the most successful film series of all time. While very few fans look back fondly on 2005’sElektra(theBladetrilogy is somewhat more beloved), these movies served as a proof of concept for the idea that superhero stories could cross over from niche properties to mainstream success on screen.
Everything We Know About Marvel’s Phase 6
The conclusion of the Multiverse Saga will feature the big names, including the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the Avengers.
It’s hard to imagine nowadays, but there was a time when the idea of a mainstream comic book movie was met with skepticism. While there had been successful hits like 1989’sBatmanor 1978’sSuperman,those were seen as anomalies more than signs of things to come. It wasn’t until 20th Century Fox releasedX-Menin 2000 that the possibility of big superhero franchises began to come into focus. If theX-Menfilms had flopped, it’s entirely possible that the powers that be wouldn’t have wanted to gamble on adaptingIron Maneight years later.As a series that has always derived some of its fun from satirizing superhero movie conventions, it’s appropriate thatDeadpool & Wolverinewould pay tribute to this more nebulous era of comic book movies.
It’s entirely likely that, while we probably won’t see Garner or Snipes in these roles again, the characters will live on in some form. An MCUBlademovie has been in the works for years with Mahershala Ali set to take on the role, and it’s possible that Élodie Yung’s Elektra might make an appearance in the upcomingDaredevil: Born Again.It’s not yet known if Hugh Jackman will continue to play this Logan variant going forward, but given that the MCU is set to take on the X-Men in a few years,Deadpool & Wolverinemight serve as his final outing as well. If that turns out to be the case,it makes for a fitting finale not just for Jackman’s Logan, but for all the Marvel characters before Disney’s inevitable domination.
StreamDeapool & Wolverineon Disney+.
