It’s probably a tad unrealistic for you to watch all 33 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies leading up to this one, which doesn’t even account for the 13 X-Men movies. I’ll try to help you take a shortcut.
I’ll put these in order of what I think are the most crucial stories needed to help you understand DP&W.
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Important: If you read this and then go see the movie with friends please do not spoil any of these details I provide below or you may not have any friends left.
Logan (2017)
Starring: Hugh Jackman (Logan), Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier), Dafne Keen (X-23/Laura), Boyd Holbrook (Pierce), Richard E. Grant (Dr. Rice)
Runtime: 2h 17min
Far and away, this is the most important story for you to know heading into DP&W. You get the added bonus of watching one of the best superhero movies of all time. On RottenTomatoes it has a 93% from the critics and a 90% from the audience.
If you don’t have the time, or can’t stream the movie, I have a brief synopsis below. It is filled with spoilers.
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Super brief synopsis: Logan’s powers are fading and he’s growing old. He discovers that a secret company used his DNA to make mutant children to be used as weapons. Logan finds X-23/Laura, one of the children who escaped from the lab where they were created. Laure was made with his DNA and has his powers. He tries to get her to a place called Eden where she can join the other children who escaped the lab.
The secret company also created a clone of Logan. This clone has all of Logan’s powers and strength at his prime. In an ultimate showdown X-24 kills Logan, then Laura kills X-24.
Laura berries Logan in a grave in the woods, with only a pair of sticks marking an “X” as a grave marker.
Deadpool (2016)
Starring: Ryan Renolds (Wade/Deadpool), Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Ed Skrein (Francis/Ajax)
It would be handy if you had some background with the first Deadpool movie. The essential thing to know about the character is that Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is a former Special Forces soldier who now works as a mercenary. His world comes crashing down when he is diagnosed with cancer. He is approached by an evil scientist who can treat his cancer. The treatment is horrifically painful and leaves the handsome Wade disfigured, but also with super accelerated healing powers.
Deadpool II (2018)
The crucial thing to know about this movie is that in the end credit scene Deadpool ends up with a watch/device that allows him to travel through time and fix a few problems that came up.
Time Variance Authority
You may have heard that the MCU has gotten a little multiverse crazy. There was even a movie titled Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. (Emphasis on Madness.) Plus, the multiverse played a prominent role in the last Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Central to all of this time travel multiverse mess is the TVA. They are tasked with cleaning up timelines/multiverses when someone mucks about with the events. The TVA was introduced in the Disney+ series Loki. In the movie Deadpool & Wolverine Deadpool even says, “Loki, season 1 episode 5?”
I would recommend watching both seasons of Loki. Not because you need to know everything that happens in that series to understand DP&W, but because it’s a really good show. I think it’s the best of the MCU series. Fans pretty much agree. Of the 12 total episodes across both seasons, they have ratings of: 8.6, 8.7, 7.7, 9.0, 8.9, 8.6 and 8.2, 7.6, 7.7, 8.6, 8.7, 9.5. You can see, it ends on a high note.
If you can’t watch the series, or if you’ve forgotten what happened, here’s a few of the essentials.
You can think of the TVA as the ultimate bureaucracy that overlooks an infinite number of timelines over an infinite span of time. What isn’t explained in the video is that when the TVA finds someone guilty of messing with their timeline they are sent to the Void. The void is a place at the end of time that basically acts as a time-dump. It’s full of lots of people and things that got pruned from their timelines. There is only one void, which means that if versions of a person across different timelines all violate TVA rules then multiple versions of a person (variants) can end up in the void. In the show Loki, Loki meets various versions of himself. Likewise on DP&W you will see that some characters have many multiples of themself in the void.
Disney purchased 20th Century Fox
This information isn’t hugely important to the plot of DP&W, but it is mentioned, and you might wonder why there’s a huge 20th Century Fox logo half buried in the void.
Marvel is originally a company that created wildly successful comic books. Back in the 1990s they were in financial trouble, so they sold the rights to many of their characters to various movie companies. Most notably, all of the X-Men characters were purchased by 20th Century Fox Studios. Later, Marvel Studios was formed and began producing the Avengers movies with Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, etc. And Spider-Man ended up in the hands of Sony. What might be confusing is that in the comics all of these characters were created by one company and there were many cross-overs between them. But because the characters were now owned by different studios, there were no crossover possibilities. That all ended a few years ago when the Fox transferred ownership of 20th Century Fox over to Disney. Now Disney/Marvel own the rights to all of the X-Men and Avengers characters and so they can bring them all into one big story.
From the uber-fan, this is what makes the movie DP&W so huge. This is the movie where Deadpool and Wolverine—previously owned by 20th Century Fox—are rolling into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Cameos
There are a LOT of cameos in DP&W. I think the cameos are the best parts. I’m not going to tell you what happens in DP&W, but the rest of this article will give you the background for various characters so that you can understand their importance in the movie.
There are a lot of spoilers that follow. You’ve been warned.
The Human Torch
Undoubtedly, you’ve at least seen photos of Chris Evans as Captain America in the Avengers. Before any of the MCU movies, there was a movie called The Fantastic Four. In that movie Chris Evans plays the character Johnny Storm/The Human Torch.
Blade
Blade/Eric Brooks had a 1998 movie starring Wesly Snipes. Blade is a half-human, half-vampire hybrid with vampire hunting abilities, known as a “Daywalker” due to his immunity to sunlight. Blade possesses superhuman strength, agility, and a healing factor, along with the ability to sense supernatural creatures. He is trained in martial arts and armed with an array of weaponry, including a signature sword. Blade dedicates his life to eradicating vampires and protecting humanity.
Elektra
Elektra Natchios, portrayed by Jennifer Garner in the 2005 film Elektra, is a highly skilled assassin with a tragic past. She was trained by a mystical group known as the Chaste. She has exceptional martial arts skills, agility, and proficiency with her signature weapons: twin sai.
Elektra is haunted by her violent upbringing and the murder of her parents. In the 2005 movie, she is hired for an assassination but chooses to protect her targets, a man and his daughter, instead of killing them for the Hand organization.
Gambit
Gambit, a.k.a. Remy LeBeau, is a character that fans have been longing to see on the big-screen for ages, and almost unanimously, fans want to see Channing Tatum play the charming, Cajun mutant from Marvel Comics. He can kinetically charge objects, typically playing cards, making them explosive. A skilled thief and expert fighter, Gambit is a member of the X-Men, known for his roguish charisma. Tatum spent years trying to develop a movie for Gambit and almost saw it come to fruition, only to see the project flushed due to Disney purchasing 20th Century Fox. There are no photos of Tatum as Gambit yet because it was a huge surprise that he’s in the movie. So please don’t mention it to any of your friends who might be spoiled.
X-23/Laura
In the beginning of this article I mentioned X-23/Laura from Hugh Jackman’s last dance as Wolverine in the movie Logan. She makes another appearance in this movie, albeit 7 years older now.
Blake Lively as Ladypool
Reynolds’ real-life wife Blake Lively plays the role of the ponytailed Lady Deadpool. In the comics, Wanda Wilson takes on the Lady Deadpool title in Earth-3010. Lively seemingly leaned into the rumors at the film’s N.Y. premiere, donning a skin-tight red catsuit. However, we do not see Ladypool without her mask on, so it’s an assumption that is Blake under the mask until she confirms it.
Matthew McConaughey as Cowboy Deadpool
I’m only telling you this so that you can listen closely to the voice of Cowboy Deadpool. He only has a few lines, but that’s McConaughey.
Nathan Fillion as Headpool
Same as McConaughey, this is primarily a voice acting role. If you’re a Fillion fan you’ll know that he gets a huge number of cameo roles in movies. He’s also been a CGI character in a few of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
The Many Varients of Wolverine
There’s a short montage of Deadpool traveling between timelines looking for the Wolverine. It’s not crucial to know which varients are shown because they each only get short 10-second scenes. Just know that the comics include many varients of Wolverine, same as many other characters.
Hunter B-15
Hunter B-15 is from the Marvel series Loki. She is a Time Variance Authority (TVA) agent.
Sabretooth
Sabretooth is Wolverine’s arch-nemesis, a powerful mutant with similar powers as Wolverine.
Alioth
Alioth, from the series Loki, is a colossal, cloud-like entity that devours everything in the Void, a dimension where pruned timelines are sent. Alioth is powerful and terrifying, representing a significant obstacle.
Pyro
Pyro, from the X-Men movies, is a mutant who can manipulate fire, though he cannot create it. He was initially one of the good guys as a student at Xavier’s school. He later joins Magneto’s Brotherhood. He is driven by his rebellious nature and fascination with power.
Juggernaut
Juggernaut is empowered by the mystical Gem of Cyttorak, he gains immense strength, invulnerability, and unstoppable momentum. He is a mutant that usually fights against the X-Men.
Others
There are many other cameos by X-Men characters, but I think it would be more confusing to mention them because they have little or no bearing on the plot other than to be in a few action scenes.
I have one more spoiler that is a little different than the ones above. It has nothing to do with the plot, and the scene only lasts for a few seconds. But if you’re not a big comic/superhero fan then you may not understand why the audience goes crazy when you see this scene.
The Cavillverine
After the movie Logan High Jackman retired from the role as Wolverine. Hugh said that was his swan-song. He was getting too old to play the role and it took too much effort to get into “Wolverine Shape” at this stage in his life. As soon as Hugh made the announcement, fans around the world began to hypothesize: who will be the next Wolverine? Many names were suggested, but one that got a lot of attention was Henry Cavill. For the past decade or so Cavill has been in the DC-Universe as Superman. The internet would have gone nuclear if Cavill had agreed to be the next Wolverine. And who knows, he still might. Time will tell.
If you’re a fan and have any suggestions or additions that you think would help people understand DeadPool & Wolverine better then please drop them in the comments and I’ll probably add them to the post.
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