This article contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine
Deadpool & Wolverine is the 34th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and technically the 14th film in the original 20th Century Fox X-Men timeline. The movie was positioned as Deadpool’s arrival into the MCU but also as a sort of farewell to the original 20th Century Fox X-Men movies that began in 2000 with X-Men and seemed to have come to an abrupt and untimely end with New Mutants in 2020. Deadpool & Wolverine certainly had a lot of expectations to meet.
Deadpool & Wolverine is coming along at an interesting time for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it is in the middle of the Multiverse Saga. Deadpool himself makes a few jokes at the Multiverse and Marvel’s expense, but as the only Marvel Cinematic Universe film for 2024, there did seem to be a level of expectations that the film would be an important part in laying out the Multiverse Saga’s future films like Avengers 5 and Avengers: Secret Wars. Fans certainly had theories, ranging from the destruction of the 20th Century Fox universe to the setting up of the future of the Multiverse and Mutant Saga. Here is how Deadpool & Wolverine sets up the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The X-Men Universe Is Saved
The main driving factor in Deadpool & Wolverine is Deadpool’s quest to save his universe, Universe 10005, from being destroyed by Mr. Paradox, who is running a secret off the books section of the Time Variance Authority (TVA) and wants to destroy universes that are dying quickly instead of letting them slowly fade away. Deadpool’s universe is fading because the universe anchor, Wolverine, died at the end of Logan, in a very meta commentary on Hugh Jackman was the anchor of the 20th Century Fox Marvel films, and once Logan was released, the franchise seemed aimless until Disney bought 20th Century Fox.
Deadpool teams up with this film’s Wolverine, a variant from a universe where all the X-Men are dead. Together, the two save Universe 10005 from the villains Cassandra Nova and Mr. Paradox. This Wolverine takes up residence in this universe, filling the role left following the Earth 10005 version of Wolverine dying in Logan. This means that Wolverine, Deadpool, and the rest of the X-Men characters in this franchise have been spared and exist as part of the Marvel Multiverse. Instead of Deadpool joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he has decided to stay in his universe with the surrogate family he has made. It is a rather hopeful ending, one that likely took many by surprise.
Marvel’s X-Men Film Might not Be Set in the MCU
Marvel Studios is currently working on an X-Men film, with The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ Michael Lesslie penning the script. Many assumed this film would be set within the MCU’s sacred timeline, but now, following Deadpool and Wolverine’s release, the next X-Men movie might be set within this universe. Kevin Feige had already alluded in the past that they were interested in making films set in different realities outside the MCU, and X-Men might be part of that plan.
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The Fantastic Four is already confirmed to be set within another universe, and now X-Men might also. The Marvels ended with the reveal of Beast (voiced by Kelsey Grammer) and Maria Rambeau/Binary discovering Monica Rambeau and tending to her wounds in the X-Mansion basement. That scene might have been set in Earth 10005, and the X-Men film that Marvel Studios is teasing will see Hugh Jackman return as Wolverine alongside Kelsey Grammer’s Beast as a true legacy sequel to the Fox X-Men films before the main event: Avengers vs. X-Men.
Avengers vs. X-Men
Following the decision for Marvel Studios to change Avengers: The Kang Dynasty to Avengers 5, we here at MovieWeb theorized how the film might be Avengers vs. X-Men, an adaptation of the popular 2012 storyline that saw The Avengers and the X-Men battling. Where that film was centered on Hope Summers and the Phoenix Force, we could see Avengers vs. X-Men as a film drawing from the “Time Runs Out” storyline that sees two realities crashing into one another and being forced to battle to see which universe gets to live.
In both the comics and the MCU, this event is called an incursion and has been shown in both Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and The Marvels. This means that the two heroes from different universes would be forced to battle one another before both universes are destroyed, with the story being resolved in Avengers: Secret Wars.
Secret Wars sees various realities pieced together by Doctor Doom, now named God Emperor Doom, using the power of the Beyonders. Battleworld is a patchwork of various parts of the multiverse, and Avengers: Secret Wars could do that same thing as the MCU, The X-Men universe, and others merged into one new reality.
Deadpool & Wolverine already established that Jennifer Garner’s Elektra and Wesley Snipes’ Blade took place in other universes and were likely returned to their homes, so both those heroes and their universe might be part of the patchwork reality. The same goes for Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, and the new Multiverse Fantastic Four team. Deadpool & Wolverine might have just established various universes that could collide in Avengers: Secret Wars.
Deadpool’s Importance to the Multiverse
Mr. Paradox tells Deadpool that the higher-ups see Deadpool as being important to the future of the Multiverse. While this is meant to be a self-aware joke on Disney seeing value in the Deadpool franchise, in terms of the larger MCU story, it appears that there are big plans for Deadpool. This particular point, or who exactly needs Deadpool around for future adventures, is never confirmed. Could it be the head TVA councils like Mobius (Owen Wilson), or is it Loki himself as he sets as the God of Stories?
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There is also the one unanswered plot point: why is Thor crying over Deadpool? When Mr. Paradox pitches Deadpool about joining the MCU, he looks at the screens showing how the TVA has been monitoring him. At one point, Deadpool catches a glimpse at one he isn’t supposed to see that has happened yet, which is Thor crying over Deadpool’s body. While it clearly reuses footage from Thor: The Dark World, with Ryan Reynolds in place of Tom Hiddleston as Loki, the scene is brought up multiple times by Deadpool, but he is never answered. Now, audiences are excited to discover what about Deadpool would make Thor cry for him.
A Stand-Alone Story
Despite all the criticism that the MCU movies are just one giant ad for the next project, Deadpool & Wolverine acts as an argument against that narrative. The film is very much a stand-alone story, focusing on Deadpool and Wolverine as characters while also shining a spotlight on forgotten Marvel movie characters before the MCU. In terms of the wider MCU narrative, it doesn’t push the larger story further.
That might be because it is R-rated; Marvel Studios might not want a lot of essential story elements being introduced or set up in a movie that a good portion of the audience cannot see. It will be interesting to see how some fans, who have often criticized many films and television shows in the Multiverse Saga for being aimless, respond to this MCU film, which is not worried about setting up future projects but more just giving Wolverine and Deadpool a long-awaited team up.
Deadpool & Wolverine also isn’t interested in answering plot points from previous MCU films. There is no connection to Beast from The Marvels or the status of the various Kangs in the mid-credit scene for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It is more interested in giving a sense of closure to non-MCU films. Characters like Elektra, Blade, X-23, or even Channing Tatum’s never-realized Gambit are given the spotlight and one giant stage to take a bow.
After seventeen years, Chris Evans returns as the Human Torch after his tenure was cut short before becoming Captain America. Deadpool & Wolverine is an entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it is certainly one that, by the nature of the character, doesn’t have a big impact in the narrative sense but that doesn’t mean audiences won’t enjoy it as just a Deadpool and Wolverine movie, which is what it says on the package.