By Jess Bacon
This article contains Deadpool & Wolverine spoilers.
Six years after Avengers: Endgame (2019), the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems burdened by its glorious, record-breaking past. Even Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool, who has, for corporate-licensing reasons, been separate from parent company Disney’s larger worldbuilding strategy, offers a homage to the Avengers in his 15-rated, buddy-blockbuster threequel Deadpool & Wolverine. Pulling Hugh Jackman out of superhero retirement after his character’s death in Logan (2017), the long-awaited crossover finally welcomes the X-Men franchise – that belonged to 20th Century Fox before Disney’s 2019 acquisition of the studio – into the fold of the ever-expanding MCU.
Distinguished as the foul-mouthed masked vigilante who can cut to camera to offload his quick-witted commentary, Deadpool takes the opportunity to extend this meta self-awareness to the MCU itself in the film. He says it’s had ‘miss, after miss, after miss, since Endgame’ and tells Wolverine he’s ‘ing at a low point’. Wade doesn’t shy away from making Marvel the butt of its own jokes.
