Ever since Disney bought Marvel and doomed the future of funny superheroes, there have been a hundred and nineteen f-bombs in the franchise. One of those was Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3. Guess where the other 118 went? That’s right, Hawkeye season 2— I’m just kidding. Deadpool and Wolverine, proud holder of the most swear words and dirty jokes in Disney history, released over the summer on July 26th and it was beautiful. It was directed by Shawn Levy, who directed the first two Deadpool movies and he gave the fans everything that he needed to; Madonna, the multiverse, Deadpool’s signature humor, and Hugh Jackman’s costume exploding.
Marvel continues the recent MCU trend of bringing the multiverse into all of its movies after the success of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (really, the multiverse should have died here.) It’s the core of the whole plot of Deadpool and Wolverine; after retiring from being a mercenary, Deadpool is pulled into the TVA and told his timeline is dying after the death of his world’s “core being,” Wolverine.
Careful all thee that tread here, there will be some spoilers! They’ll be brief and necessary but included nonetheless.
Let’s get the complaints out of the way first. I didn’t have many. Some of the jokes did fall a little flat, but not all of these can be winners. I will say, the car salesman joke was not my favorite upon seeing it initially, but it did pay off later with the Honda Odyssey. The plot took a backseat to let the humor lead the scene at times, which wasn’t always my preference when it comes to superhero movies, especially if I’ve been promised action scenes.
Speaking of, the combat scenes in this movie were stellar. They all felt very fluid and human (as human as can be with a science experiment and a man with metal bones), and looked fairly realistic. The opening credits, following in true Deadpool tradition of putting the credits in crafty places while people are brutally killed left and right, are weird and funny but so iconic that the official music video for “Bye Bye Bye” by NSYNC* from fourteen years ago was renamed to be from Deadpool and Wolverine.
This movie’s cameos were also especially awesome. Some of the highlights include Henry Cavil as Wolverine, Matthew McConaughey as Cowboy Deadpool, Chris Evans as the Human Torch, Jennifer Garner as Elektra, and Channing Tatum as Gambit (a character only true nerds would know, as he never received the standalone movie that was heavily hinted at.) The cameos were all tasteful, minus Gambit, who was just a silly guy with a silly voice until I Googled him. Chris Evans’ scene was particularly funny, as before he jumps into the fight, his suit is shown to have a red and white armband. Everyone and their mother assumed Captain America was back in the MCU, Deadpool going as far as to freak out about hearing the iconic “Avengers Assemble!” before the cloak is thrown off and he says “Flame on!” Evans’ role is a callback to the beginning of his career starring in the 2005 movie “Fantastic Four.”
What’s better than one Deadpool? Hundreds of Deadpool! A key selling point of Deadpool and Wolverine, other than Hugh Jackman’s return to the role, was the hundreds of Deadpool variants showcased in the trailer. Ladypool, Nicepool (canonically just Ryan Reynolds in a wig), Peterpool, Dogpool, Headpool, and my personal favorite, Cowboypool, all show up in this movie, either as another cash grab into the multiverse plotline or just to get another cameo into the movie. I would’ve liked to see different Deadpool variants show up throughout the movie, a Welshpool here and a Frenchpool there.
In the trailer, a variant of Deadpool was shown with a blonde ponytail and the label “Ladypool.” The internet lost its mind trying to figure out who would be playing Ladypool in the upcoming film; many speculated it would be Blake Lively, Reynolds’ wife. Others went down a different route, claiming it would be Taylor Swift playing Ladypool, based purely on….the way she was walking. Swift was on tour at the time, the whole time, starting from May 2023 when she was on tour in the US while the movie was filmed in British Columbia. Pack it up, Swifties, your queen isn’t in everything. The credits for Deadpool and Wolverine confirm Blake Lively as Ladypool, as well as her two kids as Kidpool and Babypool.
Let’s talk about Dogpool for a second. Named Mary Puppins in the movie, Peggy in real life, the dog was voted Britain’s Ugliest Dog for the 2023-2024 year. Her Instagram was changed to act as a Dogpool Instagram to promote the upcoming movie. Pictures of Ryan Reynolds with Peggy prove that looks aren’t everything, even for a dog that looks like a bite of chewed-up, spit-out, and overcooked car tire.
Just like the original Deadpool movies, the fourth wall is broken consistently and often. One of the most iconic fourth-wall breaks, in the same vein as “It rhymes with Polverine,” is an R-18 jab at Disney, pan, and wink in the first half an hour of the movie before Deadpool is dragged off to the TVA, which makes its appearance more and more in the MCU. We’re going to get a movie about the lore of the TVA before GTA 6, I can feel it.
There are no confirmed rumors about a fourth Deadpool movie, as Disney is focused on other projects like Doctor Doom, Captain America: Strange New World, and the end of the multiverse saga (that started with WandaVision, who knew?) , but I would be delighted if Ryan Reynolds were to make his return with Dogpool in tow. Deadpool and Wolverine is in theaters until August 29th, and will be available for streaming and digital copies sometime around the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025.
