Deadpool & Wolverine explained

What is Deadpool & Wolverine about?

Deadpool & Wolverine operates on two levels. The personal level is about how Deadpool and Wolverine deal with feelings of shame. Their journey causes them to confront their flaws and come away with a newfound sense of confidence that allows them to start living life again. The meta level is about the 20 years of 20th Century Fox attempting Marvel movies and working through similar feelings of shame around how that all went. The same closure Wade and Logan achieve for themselves is what the film attempts to give to the Fox-era of Marvel, to not only those involved in making the movies but also all of us who watched them. 

Cast

• Wade Wilson/Deadpool – Ryan Reynolds
• Logan/Wolverine – Hugh Jackman
• Cassandra Nova – Emma Corrin
• Paradox – Matthew Macfadyen
• Vanessa – Morena Baccarin
• Peter – Rob Delaney
• Blind Al – Leslie Uggams
• Pyro – Aaron Stanford
• X-23 – Dafne Keen
• Elektra – Jennifer Garner
• Blade – Wesley Snipes
• Gambit – Channing Tatum
• Johnny Storm – Chris Evans
• Ladypool – Blake Lively
• Written by – Ryan Reynolds | Rhett Reese | Paul Warnick | Zeb Wells | Shawn Levy
• Directed by – Shawn Levy

Understanding Deadpool & Wolverine

The character arcs

The easiest way to understand Deadpool & Wolverine is through the character arcs. Both have, in different ways, receded into themselves. Deadpool’s lack of higher purpose has caused him to lose motivation. His life stalls, stagnates. Wolverine’s refusal to be part of a group, his constant need to rebel, means he wasn’t around to prevent the deaths of the X-Men. In the aftermath, he gives over to his bestial side and lets go of his humanity. So each character is in the midst of an existential freefall. Loners who wish to be anything but. 

Jump to the middle of the film, and Wade suddenly has a purpose—he needs to save his world. And Logan has been asked, once again, to be part of a team. The question is, can they do it? Does Deadpool have what it takes to rise to such a large occasion, rather than being a constant f***-up? And can Wolverine get past his self-consciousness and critical thoughts and accept not only others, not only himself, but the fact that others don’t hate him as much as he hates himself? This is the opportunity both were looking for. It’s just a matter of actually becoming the people they need and want to be. 

And at the end of the movie, we receive our answer: yes. Wade does the selfless thing and tries to bridge the matter and antimatter feeds on his own. It’s the noble sacrifice he was previously incapable of. But he doesn’t have the reach. So Wolverine steps in and adds the necessary link in the chain. As much as that moment means for Wade, it’s not the same catharsis for Logan. That happens afterwards. Initially, Logan plans on saying goodbye to Wade. Going off on his own. The typical Wolverine thing. But then he doesn’t. Instead, he goes back to Wade’s apartment and meets Al. We then fast forward an unspecified amount of time, and see that Logan didn’t just immediately leave. He has stuck around and continues to hang out with Wade, Wade’s friends, and X-23. 

As popcorn-y as Deadpool & Wolverine is, the characters have relevant emotional arcs. While their problems are appropriately comic book and dramatic, when you zoom out, emotionally pulling back from the world is something many of us have experienced or are experiencing. To put it another way—many people struggle with feelings of shame and inadequacy. Which is really what Deadpool & Wolverine is about. Not feeling good enough and being uncertain how you can possibly change that. 

Which is why the film can be oddly cathartic for many viewers. Wade and Logan finally feel good enough, maybe you can too. 

Meta-awareness

The other big way to understand Deadpool & Wolverine is through its meta commentary. The characters of Deadpool and Wolverine represent the 20th Century Fox-era of Marvel films. Deadpool’s rejection by the Avengers stands-in for the Marvel Cinematic Universe having nothing to do with Fox-owned characters. And without Wolverine, the X-Men franchise struggled. Then died. Obviously, that’s on Fox for making lackluster movies; it’s not Hugh’s fault because he walked away. But that’s what it can feel like. “Could I have done more? Should I have been there?” Wolverine asks himself the same questions. 

A lot of people spent a tremendous amount of time and effort to make the Fox Marvel movies. And you know many of them had their hearts in the right place. The whole era lasted for 20 years and spawned 18 projects. But most came out lackluster. And there were so many almosts and what-ifs. At a certain point, it felt bad to be associated with the Fox Marvel world. That’s why both Deadpool and Wolverine start the film in such low spirits. And why one has a character arc about mattering and the other about coming to terms with their past. 

Through that lens, Deadpool & Wolverine becomes about redemption and closure. It’s not just the main characters who are trying to find catharsis for what they’ve been through. It’s Wesley Snipes never getting to continue as Blade. It’s Jennifer Garner being a casualty of the genre’s infancy, when studios still hadn’t figured out the blueprint. It’s Channing Tatum after Fox cast him in 2014 to play Gambit but the project got lost in the shuffle. It’s Dafne Keen being part of a legendary movie like Logan then left waiting on the curb. It’s all the side characters and villains who so many writers, directors, and studio executives treated like jokes. 

Deadpool & Wolverine is a swan song for all of that. It’s an attempt to dignify the missteps and misfires with one big goodbye. It’s essentially the movie equivalent of Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”. Which is why that song plays at the end credits, overtop of a montage of behind-the-scenes footage from various Fox projects. 

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road/Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go/So make the best of this test and don’t ask why/It’s not a question, but a lesson learned in time/It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is right/I hope you had the time of your life

As earnest and heartfelt as that may seem. Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day’s frontman, wrote the song about a breakup, and meant everything sarcastically. That’s why he called it “Good Riddance”. It’s essentially him saying, “Yeah. Yeah. I hope you had the time of your life. Jerk.” Which is very Deadpool. Granted, the video that plays feels very earnest and nostalgic in the most pure way possible. Given the rest of the film’s genuine effort to do right by characters and actors, it seems safe to say that Reynolds and crew meant the song in the “high school graduation” way. With just a bit of an f-you to Fox. Which is why throughout you see them take a lot of shots at the studio. It has compassion for the people, less for the executives. 

Personally, I think it’s cool to see how Deadpool & Wolverine plays out this redemption arc on both the personal and meta levels. It gives the whole film a cohesiveness and resonant emotional foundation that charges the story and heightens its farewell to the era. 

The Void

Locations play a pretty big role in Deadpool & Wolverine. You have Earth-10005 representing the Fox universe. And Earth-616, the “Sacred Timeline”, standing-in for the MCU. Then the Void embodies the disappointment, missteps, and lost potential of everything Fox had and Marvel never capitalized on. 

The Void actually allowed Marvel to neatly sort characters into two piles. Those they were going to send-off into the history books and those they wanted to maybe carry forward into the MCU. It’s a sorting hat. With Alioth essentially serving as the Hand of Kevin Feige. 

Cassandra Nova

A villain typically serves as a counterpoint to the hero. So if Deadpool and Wolverine are about overcoming the woes of their past and finding a reason to go on, Cassandra Nova does the opposite. She gives in to the anger and bitterness. She wants to say “good riddance” to Fox and the MCU. Tear both apart and leave people with only the remnants, the memories. Professor X represented the pinnacle of morality for Fox’s universe. And here is his long-lost sister defining the other end of the spectrum. That’s one of the reasons she wheels out in Xavier’s chair. And why Logan gives that speech about Charles Xavier when he spares Cassandra. It positions our heroes as the optimists and Cassandra as the pessimist. Not just in the world of the movie but in terms of how people feel about Fox, the MCU, and superhero films in general. Cassandra is the kind of person who wants it all to go into the void. 

In that way, Deadpool & Wolverine is actually designed to renew the faith people have in the MCU. Whether they recognize it or not, viewers will feel the film subtextually asking them to think fondly of everything Fox and MCU. Obviously that won’t sit well with everyone. Some people will actively reject Deadpool & Wolverine because the meta-messaging feels wrong to them. But the movie seems to intentionally draw a line in the sand. If you want to come on the journey, with Feige back at the helm for the first time in many years, then come on. If not, well, at least we “had the time of our lives”.

How did Wade and Logan survive?

Through dialogue, we’re told that if one of them had been the bridge then they wouldn’t have survived. But because they made the bridge together, the raw power of the time ripper wasn’t enough to destroy either of them. 

Was the video of Deadpool and Thor from a future movie?

It’s Deadpool inserted into a scene from Thor: The Dark World. The scene initially involved Loki. Maybe it’s teasing at something, but it wasn’t actual unseen footage.

So Johnny really did say all those things in the post-credits scene?

For a lot of Deadpool & Wolverine, we think Wade put words in Johnny’s mouth about Cassandra Nova, words that lead directly to her peeling Johnny’s skin from his body. Logan calls Wade a murderer. 

After the credits, Deadpool plays video footage from the ride to Cassandra’s. And there we witness Johnny saying everything Wade repeated. While it’s definitely in Deadpool’s wheelhouse to doctor a video like that, Johnny saying all of those things fits with how the movie was mocking Evans as Human Torch while idealizing his Captain America. Cap is the best. While Johnny? The worst. So I think we’re supposed to take the scene at face value. 

Are anchor beings a real thing?

No. I think it was just part of the meta commentary around Hugh Jackman. He was the main star of the Fox universe. Then he left and the whole thing kind of crumbled. So the concept of the anchor being becomes a way to dramatize real world events in the framework of the film. I’d be surprised if it continued to be a relevant, important concept in the MCU. 

Are the Deadpool variants from the comics?

Yeah, in 2010 Marvel started a whole arc that introduced the Deadpool Corps (even though “corps” is pronounced “kor” some people say “corpse” which is part of the joke). 

Members of the Corps included: Beespool, Championpool, Chibipool, Deadpool Pulp, Dogpool, Golden Age Deadpool, Grootpool, Hawkeyepool, Headpool, Kidpool, Knightpool, Lady Deadpool, Motorpool, Pandapool, Squirrelpool, Watari, and many others. 

There was even an Evil Deadpool Corps made up of: Assassin Deadpool, Beard of Beespool, Cesspool, D.E.A.D.P.O.O.L., Dead Man Wade, Deadpool Dinosaur, Deadpool Kid, Deadpool the Duck, Deathlokpool, Dreadpool, Evil Deadpool, Galactipool, Iron Man (Wade Wilson), Spiralpool, Ultimate Deadpool, Venompool, Wolverinepool, and many others. 

So the variant battle and madness was a bit of a nod to that era of Deadpool comics. 

Who played Dogpool?

Dogpool was played by Peggy. Marvel.com actually has a whole article detailing how they found Peggy. “In fact, it was Reynolds who first advocated for Peggy’s casting. ‘We did a global search, and Peggy beat out lots of contestants because of her sheer ugliness,’ director Shawn Levy says with a laugh. Before joining the cast of Deadpool & Wolverine, Peggy had some experience with the spotlight, having been named ‘Britain’s Ugliest Dog.’”

That’s adorable but also incredibly obvious in hindsight.