Deadpool & Wolverine Story Recap: 12 Things To Know From Previous Marvel Movies & Shows

Summary

• Deadpool & Wolverine marks the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s milestone entry, uniting iconic antiheroes for an epic multiversal adventure.
• Wolverine and Deadpool’s complex pasts shape their thrilling team-up, with impacts resonating across the MCU’s timeline and multiverse.
• Their shared history, time travel antics, and battles with TVA hint at a high-stakes journey in Deadpool & Wolverine’s chaotic escapades.

Deadpool & Wolverine promises to be a landmark entrant in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, drawing from Marvel’s distant past and recent history, and with potentially huge consequences for the MCU’s future. Deadpool & Wolverine brings together Marvel’s two most iconic antiheroes for an epic multiversal adventure. From Wolverine’s tumultuous past in Fox’s X-Men films to Deadpool’s chaotic escapades, their journeys have been marked by dramatic battles, pivotal alliances, and complex character development.

Deadpool & Wolverine bids a fond farewell to Marvel’s early movies in the wake of Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox and gaining the cinematic rights to numerous Marvel characters. As the franchise navigates its slightly uncertain future, introducing X-Men into the MCU promises to be a landmark event. However, to fully appreciate this new adventure, it’s essential to understand the intricate web of events and relationships that have shaped both Deadpool and Wolverine before their thrilling team-up.

12 Deadpool Gained His Powers While Undergoing Torturous Cancer Treatment

Deadpool

As seen in Deadpool, Wade Wilson gains his mutant powers through a brutal and experimental procedure. Initially, Wade is working as a mercenary who is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He is approached by a secret program that promises to cure his cancer and grant him superhuman abilities. Desperate, Wade agrees and is subjected to torturous experiments. The procedure involves injecting him with a serum designed to awaken latent mutant genes, which is then catalyzed by extreme stress and near-death experiences.

Wade’s mutant genes activate, granting him a regenerative healing factor that cures his cancer and gives him the ability to heal from any injury rapidly. This power makes him virtually immortal, and is perhaps even more potent than Wolverine’s healing factor. The process leaves him horribly disfigured but Deadpool also gains enhanced strength, agility, and reflexes.

11 Deadpool Was Given Cable’s Time Travel Device

Deadpool 2

At the end of Deadpool 2, Wade Wilson is given Cable’s time travel device as a token of appreciation for helping Cable save his family. Negasonic Teenage Warhead and her girlfriend, Yukio, repair the damaged device, allowing Wade to travel through time. He uses this for several purposes, including “tidying up the timeline” and executing the version of Deadpool that appears in the infamous X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Wade’s interference with the timeline through these acts is likely what drew the attention of the MCU’s Time Variance Authority in Deadpool & Wolverine. This sets the stage for his interaction with Wolverine, leading to a new adventure that explores the complexities of time travel and its ramifications. This is also likely connected with how Deadpool transitions in the MCU.

10 Deadpool Saved Vanessa And The X-Force

Deadpool 2

Using Cable’s time travel device in Deadpool 2, Deadpool travels back in time to save Vanessa from being killed by a hitman, thus preventing the tragic event that instigated the movie’s plot. He then uses the device to rescue various members of X-Force who had met untimely deaths during their mission, including Peter and Shatterstar. In the opening scenes of Deadpool & Wolverine, these rescued characters appear as part of Deadpool’s new extended family.

Deadpool emphasizes that they are the family he has sought to protect and save. This newfound family dynamic highlights Deadpool’s deeper motivations and personal growth and is his primary motivating factor. However, his meddling with the timeline by saving these individuals attracts the TVA’s attention.

9 Pruned Variants Are Sent To The Void

Loki

In the series Loki, it is revealed that pruned variants and timelines are sent to the Void, a desolate realm at the end of time. Here, a monstrous entity known as Alioth consumes everything and everyone sent there, ensuring these anomalies do not disrupt the Sacred Timeline. Alioth, a massive, cloud-like creature, devours all matter in the Void, preventing any escape or interference.

In Deadpool & Wolverine, the Void and Alioth appear to play pivotal roles. The crumbling imagery of the 20th Century Fox logo suggests that Fox’s X-Men universe has been pruned, while several fight scenes are based within the Void. Regardless of the cause, Deadpool’s universe is threatened, prompting his adventure in Deadpool & Wolverine.

8 Loki Saved The Multiverse

Loki Season 2

At the end of Loki season 2, Loki takes a monumental step to save the multiverse from collapse. Throughout both seasons, Loki witnesses the destruction caused by the fracturing of the Sacred Timeline and the subsequent chaos unleashed by Sylvie’s killing of He Who Remains. Loki realizes that drastic action is required to stabilize the multiverse.

Loki confronts the temporal anomaly head-on, gathering the various timeline strands and using himself as a physical temporal loom to ensure the survival of all timelines. This heroic intervention implies that Fox’s X-Men universe, one of the many branching timelines, is also preserved from eradication. This could explain its limbo state, where characters like Deadpool and Wolverine continue to exist despite the TVA’s earlier efforts to prune them.

7 The TVA Now Protects The Multiverse

Loki Season 2

When the TVA was introduced in Loki, it was under the control of He Who Remains. This enigmatic figure created and managed the TVA to preserve a singular, Sacred Timeline, preventing the rise of dangerous multiversal chaos. The TVA diligently pruned any variants or timelines that deviated too far from the preordained path, maintaining a delicate balance and eliminating potential threats to the timeline’s integrity.

However, Loki’s actions in Loki season 2 significantly altered the TVA’s mission. Loki took control of the TVA and redefined its purpose. Instead of preserving a single timeline, the TVA is now tasked with protecting the entire multiverse. This shift entails safeguarding all branching timelines, ensuring they coexist harmoniously without being pruned indiscriminately.

6 Deadpool & Wolverine Have Met Before

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Before teaming up in Deadpool & Wolverine, Deadpool and Wolverine first crossed paths in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In that film, Wolverine encounters a drastically different version of Deadpool. The portrayal was controversial, especially for its alteration of Deadpool’s iconic characteristics, such as sewing his mouth shut.

For Deadpool & Wolverine, it is unclear whether these characters are the same versions from X-Men Origins: Wolverine or simply variants. The multiverse and time travel elements introduced in the MCU mean that these characters could be different iterations from alternate timelines. This ambiguity opens up intriguing possibilities for their relationship and interactions, blending past encounters with new dynamics. Regardless, producing Deadpool & Wolverine was predicated on the failure of X-Men Origins, so their joint history is unavoidable.

5 Wolverine Has Died In One Of The Timelines

Logan

Set in a dystopian future, Logan depicts an aging Wolverine suffering from a diminished healing factor. He embarks on a final mission to protect a young mutant, Laura. In a poignant climax, Logan sacrifices himself to save Laura and other young mutants, dying from his injuries and the cumulative effects of his deteriorating powers.

It has been explicitly stated that Deadpool & Wolverine will not interfere with the events of Logan and the perfect ending it gave the character. This suggests that the Wolverine depicted in Deadpool & Wolverine comes from an earlier point in the timeline or is a variant from a different universe. It’s important to note that Logan is set in a different universe than the mainline X-Men movies, further supporting the idea that the Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine is a distinct iteration.

4 Wolverine Established A New Timeline When He Saved The World

X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Wolverine has been a crucial hero in the X-Men movies, saving the universe multiple times. Most notably, in X-Men: Days of Future Past, he averts a post-apocalyptic timeline where mutants face extinction at the hands of the Sentinels. By successfully past events, Wolverine prevents the dystopian future.

In Deadpool & Wolverine, Deadpool mentions that Wolverine saved the entire universe, likely alluding to his heroic actions in Days of Future Past. Such significant alterations to the timeline could have drawn the ire of the Time Variance Authority. Wolverine’s actions, though ultimately beneficial, represent a major deviation from the predetermined path, potentially marking him as a target for the TVA’s scrutiny in Deadpool & Wolverine.

3 The X-Men Were Killed In One Of The Timelines

Logan

In the original Days of Future Past timeline, the X-Men face a grim fate; hunted to extinction by the Sentinels. In Logan, set in yet another bleak future, most of the X-Men are dead due to a tragic accident involving Professor X’s deteriorating mental state. This timeline paints a somber picture of a world where mutants have all but vanished, leaving Wolverine to protect the few remaining.

Deadpool & Wolverine suggests that a similar catastrophic event has occurred, with Wolverine appearing next to graves during the trailer. Deadpool references Wolverine’s history of universe-saving acts, hinting at yet another dire situation where mutants face annihilation. While it’s uncertain which timeline this Wolverine hails from, the trailer indicates a familiar crisis is underway.

2 The MCU Is Experiencing Incursion Events

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness

The MCU has been grappling with “Incursion” events, where universes collide and spill into one another. These dramatic inter-universal clashes were prominently featured in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In the film, Doctor Strange encounters various alternate realities, some of which face catastrophic consequences due to their interactions with other universes. These incursions threaten the stability of the multiverse, causing universes to merge or be destroyed.

The concept of incursions provides a plausible explanation for the destruction of Fox’s X-Men Universe. As different universes collide and their realities intertwine, this chaotic process can lead to the erasure or transformation of entire timelines. This aligns with the MCU’s ongoing narrative of multiversal instability and sets the stage for new interactions and conflicts between previously separate universes.

1 Wolverine Has A History With Several Mutants

X-Men & X2: X-Men United

Wolverine has encountered several mutants from Deadpool & Wolverine already. He first clashed with Tyler Mane’s Sabretooth in X-Men (2000), a fierce adversary whose brutal fight showcased their deep-seated rivalry. TThough played by a different actor, X-Men Origins: Wolverine delved into their intense rivalry and established them as siblings.

Wolverine briefly fought alongside Pyro in X2: X-Men United, only for Pyro to later defect and join Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Additionally, Wolverine had a bitter confrontation with Lady Deathstrike in X2: X-Men United, a character with whom he shares a tumultuous history from the comics. In Logan, X-23 is introduced as a clone of Wolverine, and the two share a profound paternal relationship as he strives to protect her. These are each recalled in Deadpool & Wolverine.