For many fans, Deadpool & Wolverine has been a crossover highly anticipated ever since the successful launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the former X-Men Cinematic Universe paving the way for these icons on the big screen. Despite previously failed attempts to capture the feeling of a shared world that can encompass all the classic Marvel characters, the MCU gave us hope that it may one day happen. Maybe the pipe dream or fan fiction of team ups of the many characters we grew up on could one day become reality.
It’s not like anyone expected the MCU to develop to the point where we had the Infinity Saga or the recent Spider-Man legacy crossover between the former iterations, or even the multiverse concepts. But there was always a barrier blocking this path going further, our fantasy of something even grander, becoming reality was not in the horizon. 20th Century Fox owned the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four property and they along with Sony who own the rights to Spider-Man were part of the reason why the Marvel Cinematic Universe wasn’t the host for all major Marvel Characters. It wasn’t until 2019 when Disney acquired Fox on a $71.3 billion deal, one of the largest studio mergers ever, that door finally opened for Disney and Marvel Studios to have rights to more Marvel characters that were seemingly unattainable not too long ago. The Marvel Universe can co-exist at last.
With the arrival of this news, the world started to think that maybe, we can finally see the beloved X-Men and Fantastic Four we grew up with join the Avengers and the pinnacle superhero blockbuster franchise known as the MCU. Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame just released recently at the time so they were at the height of their popularity. What has transpired since then, though, is another story altogether.
Life After Endgame
Fast forward to 2024, and MCU hasn’t had the greatest of track records in recent years. After the triumphant conclusion to Phase 3 and the Infinity Saga with Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios found themselves in a blanket of uncertainty. The looming threat of Thanos (Josh Brolin) is over and the core Avengers are gone so what’s next? The introduction of TV Shows was an interesting pivot at the time. WandaVision was a particular success and Loki across the 2 seasons has its vocal fans. But shows like She-Hulk, Secret Invasion, Echo and Hawkeye didn’t fare as well. Having multiple shows releasing every year alongside the annual 2-3 film releases significantly strained Marvel’s capacity to engage the audiences; a shocking turn of events given that was what they specialised in. Films like Eternals, Black Widow, Thor: Love and Thunder or even Ant-Man 3 seemed like a taste of what’s to come for the future of MCU, and not in a good way. The long time fans and the creators started to suffer from exhaustion.
The audiences started fearing that the MCU they grew up loving soon became school homework where everyone is constantly playing catch up just to be able to keep track of what’s happening in the latest film or TV series. What once felt like an escape to enjoy superheroes saving the day now felt like a chore to get over with. It doesn’t help that the increasing output significantly diminished the overall quality of each product. The average film started looking sloppier than usual.
The talented VFX artists that set Marvel Studios apart and normalised great CGI finally faltered, and it wasn’t even any fault of their own. They just couldn’t make ends meet with the strictest of deadlines. There simply was not enough time and space given for each project to be polished like they used to. Green screens started getting abused and even simple things like prop guns, cape costumes or masks became CGI’d. Even regular settings that could easily be filmed in real life were subjected to the green screen. The workload for the visual effects artists multiplied tenfold and it’s no surprise this was only a glimpse of a larger structural problem quite apparent with the MCU now.
Films like No Way Home and Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness fared better than most other Phase 4 films with some quality moments and both the creativity and emotion that brought us here in the first place but even they were proof of MCU slacking. The visual effects were at times subpar, at best creatively uneven. As someone that always admired MCU’s emboldened craft with CGI growing up, it was a worrying sign and my sympathies were with the many artists who were exploited for their efforts, given lack of time and not rewarded for their efforts with another project in the works because MCU was suffering from burnout. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 was the rare exception, helmed by a talented director with a distinctive visual style and vision that works so well with the misfits. James Gunn successfully pulled off the best trilogy of the MCU with an emotional, heart stirring conclusion with Volume 3 just before exiting to join DC and start his own universe there. Even when MCU reaches a high point again it comes with a cost. Losing one of their most stylised voices to their rivals who at the time were at their lowest, now seemingly carrying most people’s anticipations going forward with Supeman, after the disappointing Phase 4 and 5.
Of course there are other factors at play here for the highly inconsistent results in all these releases post Endgame. The storytelling has declined, with many core actors like RDJ and Chris Evans that brought us into MCU gone. There was no leadership to take on the mantle. How do you even get bigger than Thanos? Ant-Man 3 suggested it would be Kang as the main threat but that seems to have fallen short so there’s no sense of direction going on. Usually the audiences would be the only ones not sure where the Marvel films would be heading but that feeling has somehow passed onto the actual Studio themselves. They don’t seem to know what they are doing either. The coherence and connective detail that made Infinity War and Endgame such earned payoffs to investing in a big storyline no longer seemed apparent going forward. What is there to look forward to anymore? At one point it felt like we all needed the MCU, but now it feels like the MCU needs us. If that isn’t a damning statement about the current state of Kevin Feige’s productions I don’t know what is.
Deadpool Background
Deadpool’s introduction on the big screen was an unusual one. He was a no mouth killing machine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine strictly known as Wade Wilson played by the same Ryan Reynolds. It wasn’t until the titular film ‘Deadpool’ (2016) where the red costumed merc with a mouth with his main superpower besides immortality being breaking the 4th Wall and directly talking to the audience that we got the iconic Marvel comic character on the big screen. From this point onwards is where we would see any proper attempts of a Deadpool on a cinematic scale. The only catch is, while Deadpool may have officially been a part of the X-Men Universe at this point, they couldn’t seem to pay the license for the popular names so we are left with Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) as Wade searches for his happy ending with his beloved Vanessa (Morena Baccarin).
Deadpool 2 (2018) has Wade creating his own X-Force to save a boy from being killed by Cable (Josh Brolin) and by the end of it all there isn’t much of a X-Force left and we see Deadpool abuse Cable’s time travel device to bring back Vanessa and even poke fun at other X-Men movies like killing the Wade Wilson with his mouth sewn shut and the Green Lantern project. Ultimately, this is Ryan Reynolds being himself and Deadpool is the perfect vehicle to emphasise that.
Meanwhile, we had Logan (2017) marking Hugh Jackman’s last outing as the Wolverine as a middle aged, weary Logan on a mission to save X-23 and a bunch of other mutant kids by taking them to a safe haven, we see him go up against a mindless, younger clone version of himself that proves to be his last battle. His self-sacrifice to secure a life for X-23/Laura was the fulfilment he has been looking for his whole life. Just as he dies, he realises the beauty and the vulnerability of mortality as his super-healing factor fades away.
“So this is what it feels like” is one of if not Marvel’s most emotional moment.
With all that said, where does it leave Marvel now? Both the X-Men and MCU seemed to reach a conclusive point. With Disney’s recent acquisition of Fox, how do you officially merge the X-Men and Fantastic 4 IPs into the current sprawling mess that is Post Endgame MCU?
The answer is simple. Marvel Jesus.
There comes Shawn Levy, tasked with the challenge of establishing the X-Men into the MCU. After previously working with Ryan Reynolds for one of his earlier films (Free Guy), they reunite to deliver the final film of the Deadpool trilogy and pave the way for deadpool to enter the MCU. Deadpool & Wolverine picks up 6 years after the events of Deadpool 2, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) finds himself reluctantly pulled out of retirement by the TVA (introduced in the Loki show) to team up with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) – for a mission that will change the course of Marvel Films going forward.
Finally we have our long awaited crossover between MCU and X-Men Universe. The man known as Paradox (Matthew Macfayden) is working off the grid and decides that Deadpool and Wolverine have a greater purpose to be served in the sacred timeline known as MCU. With Wade’s own universe at risk and Paradox seemingly planning to cut his world short, wade embarks on a quest to find his frenemy Logan across the multiverse in hopes of encountering one that would be perfect for the job of saving Wade’s family from destruction. For once in his life, Wade wants to finally matter to the ones he loves and prove to the universe that he does have a place in it worth caring for.
Deadpool & Wolverine plays around the idea of failure and what it means to lose everything. Logan failed his universe
“Just because someone stumbles and loses their way doesn’t mean they’re lost forever.”
The visual effects are definitely better than some of the worst we saw in recent MCU films and it’s nice knowing all the guest actors are actually in the same room together unlike in NWH or MoM because of Covid, but I do think more work needs to be done and honestly speaking they need a far better director to bring this all together.
I do think the lack of Domino, Firefist and Cable mention was a bit strange considering how vital they were in Deadpool 2.
The Future of MCU
What does this mean for MCU? The introduction of a self-aware R rated character in a mostly PG franchise helmed by Disney definitely adds a new dimension that was never seen before. In a way, Marvel Studios have finally been given the keys to access a larger range of characters and stories that can cater to more audiences
But what good is an adult rated movie if it doesn’t have a mature story or understanding of emotional depth
A flurry of cameos that had the audiences cheering.
Returning characters
Is the MCU finally saved?
By all accounts, given the current climate of MCU, Deadpool & Wolverine shouldn’t have worked. In some ways it doesn’t, the film itself isn’t shot beautifully like the Guardians nor is it as emotionally compelling as No Way Home was, and the runtime can be felt a times yet I can’t help but feel some satisfaction and joy at seeing a crossover that seemed like it would only be a myth at points for many years.
How much mileage will you get out of Deadpool & Wolverine is pretty simple. If you liked the previous 2 Deadpool movies that trend will continue onto the 3rd and if you didn’t then I wouldn’t be surprised if you feel unimpressed.
Does this save the MCU? Probably not. After several years of underwhelming output with both Phase 4 and 5 lacking cohesion and a clear aim to get people invested, 1 movie won’t magically change everything. Kevin Feige and his team has to demonstrate some consistency and purpose again. Maybe if more Marvel films can genuinely feel worth the audiences time then perhaps one day we could see a true return to form for the iconic franchise. In the long run, it’s too hard and early to determine but at least in the short run, Marvel Studios return with a box office success after a miserable past few years where it seemed like they couldn’t hold the attention of the world anymore.
One major concern is how much longer will Feige and co tolerate seeing their movies as entertainment events and sort of ignoring the cinematic qualities that made the best recent cape films (IW, EG, The Batman etc) feel more than just events but also of a higher artform?
If the DCU is successful then MCU will have no choice but to step up to compete. After all, why watch the average Marvel movie when there’s a DC movie that actually looks like a well made film. The Batman sparked these conversations and will only continue once Gunn’s Superman drops. As much as Deadpool & Wolverine was a crowd pleasing experience that honoured the past, it is more of a culmination of Fox’s legacy, cherishing the memories for better and worse, than a fresh start for the MCU. The success of Fantastic 4 next year will be a more accurate reflection of where MCU stands going forward. If it does well, especially when the previous 3 films were so poor then it will show that the MCU has officially recovered from the Pandemic years and can perhaps look to a brighter future. If it doesn’t do well and we know Superman will most likely do good since Gunn’s track record with Superhero titles have been consistent hits then that could spell the end of Marvel fans having any faith in the MCU. Interest for Avengers 5 and the X-Men movie will plummet and people will have the initiative to follow DCU instead.
For now, MCU has become the first franchise in history to cross $30B at the worldwide box office after the opening week of Deadpool & Wolverine having the strongest debut of the year and for R rated films of all time.
Released in Theatres Now
