Warning! This piece contains MASSIVE spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine!
After decades of lead-in, teases, and studio shenanigans, Deadpool & Wolverine has finally arrived in theaters with all the wild R-rated action, shocking violence, raucous jokes, deep-cut Easter eggs, and super-star cameos that you’ve likely been waiting for. But with so much going on over the two-hour-plus runtime, you may well have come out of the movie with some burning questions. We certainly did!
That said, we’re here to ask and answer all of those, or at least try to answer them… So strap in, grab your grotesque Wolverine popcorn bucket, and let’s do this!
Mommy, Are Deadpool & Wolverine in the MCU Now?
This is the biggest question coming out of the massive crossover film because, while in the lead-up to release it seemed as though the movie would be a clear-cut moment of the Fox and Marvel Cinematic Universes merging, it finishes on a far more open-ended note. While of course technically both of these characters are in an MCU movie, so that means they’re “in” the MCU, narratively we don’t get a decisive answer.
We leave Deadpool and co. in their home timeline of Earth-10005 rather than the Sacred Timeline of the MCU, which is also confusingly known as Earth-616 in the movies. That means that if this movie doesn’t deliver the success that Marvel Studios wants, they can just pretend Deadpool & Wolverine never happened, leaving Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Laura Kinney (Dafne Keen), and their friends there with nothing from the established MCU or its timeline impacted at all. It feels more like a soft launch of some Fox characters joining the wider continuity than it does a clear joining of the Fox movies with the MCU. If it works, then they can pull from them whenever they want in a way that can easily be explained by saying they were just in a different MCU timeline.
That said, there’s one movie that we’re almost certainly going to see them in: Avengers: Secret Wars. It would be very surprising if Deadpool and Wolverine didn’t show up for sure-to-be epic, multiverse-spanning battle. There’s also a chance that Secret Wars is where we’ll see that Thor and Deadpool scene that the TVA teased here!
How Did Deadpool Get to Earth-616 to Meet Happy Hogan?
In the post-credits scene of Deadpool 2, Wade uses Cable’s time watch (a.k.a. the uniquely named “Time Travel Device”) to save his dead friends and kill two versions of himself. First, the annoying version of “The Deadpool” from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and then actor Ryan Reynolds before he can sign up to play Green Lantern. What started off as a post-credits gag becomes a major plot point in this film as it seems that the Merc With a Mouth can also use the time watch to travel between dimensions. That’s how Deadpool visits Avengers HQ early in the film, with the intention of joining the team in 2018. There he meets Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan, who soundly rejects him.
This is a new addition to the lore of the watch which, as far as we knew in Deadpool 2, only worked as a time machine rather than a dimension-hopping device. It’s an interesting choice, especially as later in the film Wade steals a TemPad from the TVA to hop between universes, which doesn’t seem like something he’d need to do if he had Cable’s watch handy (and which allowed him to do the same thing earlier in the film).
How Does Wolverine Know About The Avengers?
During one of their many tête-à-têtes, Wolverine says “Fuck the Avengers,” implying that he is aware of — and sick of — their existence. So that makes us wonder what his relationship with the team is in his universe and how he knows about them at all. The fact he mentions them means there is likely an Avengers team in his world — where he failed the X-Men and ended up killing a bunch of civilians — and it seems like he’s not fond of them. Going by what Logan tells Wade, it’s clear that there’s animosity there, and he said he turned the world against the X-Men, which could include the Avengers too.
The other option is that he’s somehow aware of the Avengers of Earth-616, but that seems unlikely. (We should also point out that Deadpool knowing about the Avengers makes sense simply because of his fourth-wall-breaking abilities. He basically knows what the audience does.)
Does Logan the Movie Really Exist in the Same Timeline as the Deadpool Movies?
Isn’t this an interesting thing to ponder? In Deadpool & Wolverine, fans are presented with the concept that Logan was a part of the same X-Men Universe as the Deadpool movies. That definitely seems to be a retcon to make this already confusing movie a little easier to swallow.
First of all, even the timeline of Earth-10005 itself is up for debate, with fans assigning the temporary Earth-TRN414 moniker to the divergent history created by Wolverine’s consciousness traveling back to 1973 in X-Men: Days of Future Past and altering the events that led to the previous X-Men films. Deadpool & Wolverine seems to do away with — or simply ignore — that concern, instead vaguing things out but implying the timeline of all the X-Men movies is one singular, chronological thing. (We have a whole article on the X-Men movies’ confusing timeline if you want to dig in on it more.)
As for Logan, director James Mangold and Jackman have said contradictory things about where it was set. At one point, Mangold hinted that it was technically in the same canon as the X-Men movies, just set in 2029. But Jackman told Digital Spy it was “different in terms of timeline and tone, it’s a slightly different universe.” Hmm.
The Deadpool movies have always implied that they were part of the main X-Men timeline, or at least the revised timeline that came after Days of Future past where Team X was never formed, meaning Wade was never killed in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But again, the X-Men films often conflict with one another, so it’s difficult to be definitive on this topic.
Sorry, What’s an Anchor Being Again?
When Deadpool gets pulled in by the TVA to help Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) speed up the death of his universe, we get an explanation as to why his universe is dying at all. Rather than using the meta-storytelling of it all to blame Disney for ending the Fox Universe, Paradox instead explains that each universe has a so-called “Anchor Being” which the universe needs to stay alive. Earth-10005’s Anchor was Logan, who died during his titular movie, and so now the timeline is dying. But you might be asking what is an Anchor Being? Does it exist in the comics? Well, the answer is yes… sort of.
In Marvel Comics continuity, there are certain characters who are deemed as Nexus Beings, super-powerful heroes and villains like the Scarlet Witch who are vital to their universe and its power. Their behavior can change the shape of their universe and they’re watched closely by the Time Variance Authority. They are also officially described as “anchoring their universe,” so what we seem to have here is a Nexus Being by any other name. It’s unclear why Disney wouldn’t just use the term Nexus, especially when it was already established in the MCU thanks to WandaVision. But this is a Disney pattern, like when they introduced Holocrons in The Rise of Skywalker but insisted on calling them Sith Wayfinders.
Logan is not a Nexus Being/Anchor Being in the comics, but this also raises the question of who the Anchor Being in the main MCU would be. It feels like it would definitely be Tony Stark, but if that’s the case then the Sacred Timeline would already be dying. So perhaps it’s Captain America? Either way, it feels like this could be an important piece of canon if the head honchos at the MCU decide to continue this story.
How Does the X-Men Universe Teased at the End of The Marvels Fit in?
We don’t have a clear answer to this yet, but it does make sense that Deadpool’s Earth-10005 could be the same one that Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau found herself in at the end of The Marvels. As we’ve said, Deadpool & Wolverine doesn’t directly address the timeline contradictions of the Fox X-Men movies, but it does at least combine the movie Logan with Deadpool’s universe. So if that’s going to be the general approach of Marvel moving forward, it follows that the Beast (Kelsey Grammer) and Maria Rambeau/Binary (Lashana Lynch) seen at the end of The Marvels were in Earth-10005. Now that Deadpool has saved Earth-10005, perhaps we’ll see them again. But we’ll have to wait to see which direction the MCU goes in next.
Wait, Blade Wasn’t Even a Fox Movie Character. Why Is He Here?
The answer here is… it’s just to make people gasp and spill their popcorn! Of all the cameos, this one was truly unexpected and pretty surprising. As to how it happened, well, it’s all about licensing. Despite the fact that Blade (Wesley Snipes) wasn’t a Fox character, he was the star of a pre-MCU movie (from New Line Cinema) which makes him a prime candidate for this meta-madness nostalgia crossover. How Marvel was able to do that is actually pretty simple: Blade was the original Marvel Studios movie. It was the first film put out under that banner, and while there were a few years where Blade seemed to be lost to time, we know that they have the rights to use him thanks to the announcement that a new MCU Blade movie is in the works. So this was more of a fun cameo than a commentary on the Fox of it all, but it is interesting that Blade made the cut but the Nicolas Cage Ghost Rider — which was distributed by Sony — didn’t.
That Makes Sense, But When Did Channing Tatum Play Gambit?
This might be the most meta moment in the entire movie because Channing Tatum never got to play Gambit, but that wasn’t for lack of trying. His arrival in the comics-accurate suit, complete with head sock and light-up purple playing cards, is a nod to the fact that for years Tatum tried to get a Gambit movie made. He had originally been in the running for the role back in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine but couldn’t make the timing work. Five years later he signed on for a solo Gambit movie that never came to fruition (he even appeared at a Comic-Con Hall H panel!), but it has been a recurring talking point throughout the last decade as comic book movies have taken over Hollywood. At one point the movie was on the slate for a 2020 release through Fox, but it was ultimately canned after the Disney/Fox takeover. So this is a reference not to an actual character, but one that was stuck in development hell for years. Gambit even says in the movie that maybe he was born in the Void – now that’s taking meta to the next level!
What Did Cassandra Nova Want?
A surprise choice for the villain of this film, Cassandra Nova first debuted in New X-Men #114 and was created by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. In New X-Men she wants world domination, but here she wants world destruction. Her origin in the film also varies slightly from those sterling X-Men issues, where Charles tried to kill her in the womb. Here she was the attacker, and is punished by the TVA, who purge her from the timeline while she was still in the womb.
We don’t know how she survived or what really drives her, but she does seem at least a little happy in the Void — where she and her mutants can live freely as themselves in the junkyard of comic book movies — until Paradox tries to have her killed, which inspires her to use the Time Ripper to destroy every timeline. Why does she do that? She claims to want everything but the Void destroyed, where she can reign as a god. While Cassandra may not be the most complex villain we’ve ever seen, actor Emma Corrin does a fantastic job bringing her to life – and her powers are legit terrifying. As to whether we’ll ever see her again, well, that seems unlikely. But then again, no one in comics ever really dies…
So When Are We Getting the MCU X-Men?
The good news for mutant fans is that Kevin Feige has said that this movie and everything that comes after will be the MCU in its “mutant era.” Does this mean that after the Fantastic Four film hits next year, we’re going to be getting more mutants and the X-Men? Actor Jonathan Majors’ legal problems led to his being fired by Marvel, so maybe Kang and his dynasty are being deprioritized and the X-Men are getting a faster track than initially planned.
Will Deadpool and Wolverine wind up on the eventual MCU X-Men team? Again, it’s impossible to know right now. But if their film is a hit, it sure would make sense for the unlikely pair to at least help launch the new X-Men franchise…
But what did you think of Deadpool and Wolverine? Did you have a bunch of questions like we did? Let’s discuss in the comments!
Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.
