Deadpool & Wolverine Spoiler Review: The Cameos, the Fight, and Why It's Not the Multiverse Game Changer Some Expected

This is the latest MCU movie, and it opens by letting you know right away where it stands on the messiest thing Marvel has been juggling: the multiverse. It starts at Logan's grave from the movie Logan, and I was genuinely curious what they would do to Mangold's Logan. They basically told me exactly what I expected: that version of Wolverine is dead, and this movie does not taint that at all. Then pure chaos breaks out as the TVA arrives and Deadpool kills all of them, using Wolverine's own adamantium skull to do it. I felt bad for the TVA agents in that moment. They were working for Paradox, but they were just doing their job, and he did not spare a single one of them.

I think Loki season 2 was the best telling of the multiverse after it was set up well in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and it has been all over the place since. This movie addresses that directly. Deadpool tells this Wolverine that he is catching him on an off period, a down note, whatever you want to call it, and there is a lot of that self aware commentary running through the film about how messy the multiverse concept has become since it was introduced.

The Jokes Almost Take Over Before the Story Finds Its Footing

When Deadpool starts doing his dance number to what I believe was NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys, interchangeable as far as I'm concerned, I started to worry this could be one of those movies that gets carried away with the humor and the jokes and loses itself. Sometimes it did lose itself a little that way. But that opening stretch also showed what Deadpool actually wanted, and I was laughing throughout basically the entire beginning of it.

Deadpool's Rejected Avengers Audition, the Vanessa Breakup, and Jokes Aimed at Disney and Warner Bros

The film jumps back in time to show Deadpool's interview with the Avengers, sitting with Happy Hogan on a different Earth in a different part of the multiverse, with a funny scene involving Jon Favreau essentially telling him he is not ready for this yet but they will keep an eye on him. That rejection sends Deadpool down a path where he gives up, puts on his bad wig and goes to work for a car company. He cannot help himself though, and he is in the back cutting jokes with a family in the car.

We also find out that Deadpool and Vanessa have broken up, and that he lost track of who he was, though they are still hanging out. Even though I had already seen the movie, I was surprised by how many shots they took at Disney, replaying a cocaine joke from earlier in the film, and I was also surprised by how many jokes they aimed at Warner Bros., describing them at one point as the rivals down the street.

Henry Cavill's Cameo Looks Like the End of His Doctor Doom Hopes

I have been hoping and predicting on this show that Henry Cavill would end up playing Doctor Doom. This cameo pretty much cements that he will not. My read is that his appearances at Marvel events were probably the beginning of a courting process, Marvel essentially asking what they could do together, and this cameo, playing a Wolverine variant, is what came of it.

Paradox's Pitch Sends Deadpool Hunting for Other Wolverines, Pulling Straight From the Comics

Paradox, played by the actor from Succession, recruits Deadpool to help erase his universe, offering him the purpose and acceptance he craves. I thought the character was fine, though some of the jokes given to him missed for me. There is a funny beat where Deadpool assumes he was the one who broke everything by leaving, and Paradox corrects him: it was not him, it was Logan dying that caused the damage. That sends Deadpool searching for other Wolverine variants.

Based on conversations I had with a colleague who knows the comics well, a lot of what follows pulls directly from the source material, including the image of Wolverine on a cross, which is apparently drawn from a very iconic comic book. We get a tiny little Wolverine variant, a Patch variant, and a few others before Deadpool lands on the Henry Cavill version. I found myself wondering why he was not chasing down more of these variants, but I understood once Cavill showed up. That cameo was going for a cheap pop, and it got one, and it worked.

I Wish Dafne Keen's Return Had Stayed a Surprise, Even Though the Other Cameos Worked

I was concerned early on that this was going to be a nonstop cameo fest, and I have seen some criticism along those lines, but I do not think that's fair to the movie overall. The cameos from Chris Evans, Wesley Snipes and Jennifer Garner all felt relevant to the story rather than just existing for their own sake. What I did not like is how Dafne Keen's return was handled. The explanation given was that she wanted to attend the premiere, so revealing her involvement ahead of time was the workaround. I think that is a terrible excuse. Letting people speculate would have been better, and I wish we had not known she was in this at all going in, especially since she and Hugh Jackman are close and shot a different movie together, which could have covered why she was around.

Wolverine Is Called "the Worst" Pick, and His Bar Scene Backstory Explains Why

We first meet this particular Wolverine sitting miserable in a bar, the scene shown in the trailer. His backstory is that he was out drinking one night and came back to find the X-Men in his world all dead, and it haunted him and sent him spiraling into killing people, which is why everyone hates him. The bartender tells him to leave, and he just wants his drink before he goes. That is when Deadpool shows up, recruits him, and brings him to the TVA, where he is told flat out that this is quite possibly the worst Wolverine they could have found for the job. He gets pruned along with Deadpool right into the Fox universe, complete with the old Fox logo visible in the background.

Fourth-Wall Jokes Mostly Land, but Nicepool and Dogpool Split My Reaction

Breaking the fourth wall has taken me out of a movie before, and it happened to me in She-Hulk. Deadpool has been doing it in the comics forever, though, so it feels earned here in a way it did not there, and I thought this movie pulled it off cleverly in a bunch of different ways. The only times it took me out of the movie were with Nicepool, which I did not find as funny as some other people apparently did, and to a lesser extent with Dogpool, though that one actually worked for me. I liked how obsessed Deadpool became with that dog.

A Big Multi Deadpool Battle Raises a Fair Question About Whether It Was Necessary

I understand exactly why Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes, Channing Tatum and Chris Evans are in this movie. What I do not fully understand is why there needed to be a whole battle sequence involving a horde of different Deadpool variants, beyond the fact that they wanted the spectacle of having it. I keep coming back to the question of what it actually does for the story.

The Deadpool vs Wolverine Fight Delivers, and Chris Evans Returns as the Human Torch

Once they land in the Fox universe, we get the first big fight between Deadpool and Wolverine. Ryan Reynolds looks into the camera and says, "get ready nerds," before the two of them go at it. I have a feeling, though I am not certain, that Machinima put out a video of Deadpool and Wolverine fighting each other something like ten or fifteen years ago, and I remember everyone being excited to finally see these two regenerating mutants go after each other for real. It did not disappoint. Hugh Jackman is getting hit from every side, and the chemistry between him and Ryan Reynolds carries the whole sequence, helped by the fact that Deadpool is clearly a fan of Wolverine even while he is fighting him.

From there they end up in a post apocalyptic world with mutants including Pyro, and that is where Chris Evans shows up for the first time. On rewatch I would want to confirm this, but I think there was a hint of the Captain America theme playing under his first appearance, and I remember thinking he looked skinnier than Cap before the reveal that he is actually Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, complete with "flame on." Given that the whole movie plays like a love letter to the Fox universe, it made total sense that Pyro would be able to pull the flame right out of him, and Deadpool selling him out in that moment is a genuinely hilarious beat.

Nova Underwhelms as a Villain, but Several Fox Universe Cameos Still Land

I thought the performance from the actor playing Nova was strong, but the character itself had nothing much to her by the time the movie ended, and she felt fairly generic. The imagery of her digging her hands into people's heads and noses is genuinely creepy and intimidating in the moment, but that effect wears off. For me the real engine of the movie is Deadpool and Wolverine working through their own issues together, not the villain.

Elsewhere, Paul Rudd's severed head sits atop a giant skeleton that serves as a hideout, and Deadpool jokes that he has "finally aged," playing on the running joke that Paul Rudd never does. Wesley Snipes shows up as Blade, and it was the most surprised I was by any cameo, since there had only been rumblings about it beforehand rather than confirmation of how large the role actually was. The movie also leans into the joke that Wesley Snipes reportedly did not like Ryan Reynolds, with a line to that effect that made me laugh. Channing Tatum is hilarious as Gambit, playing his accent so badly it feels intentional, and the film keeps ribbing the long rumored 200 million dollar Gambit movie that never happened, painting him as a bit sad and dopey about it even though he can clearly still fight. There is also a great, quick joke where the group learns Daredevil died too, and Jennifer Garner's character just says it's all right, a clear dig at Ben Affleck that I am sure he laughed about.

The Post Credits Scene Wasn't the Game Changer Some Rumors Promised, and Wolverine's Sacrifice Sticks

There was a rumor going around that the post credits scene was some kind of game changing reveal. It was not. It was relevant to the film in that it shows footage of Johnny actually saying what Deadpool claimed he said, confirming he was not lying earlier, but it is not the reveal I think people were expecting. I am also still curious about the mechanics of how Chris Evans, Wesley Snipes and Jennifer Garner were brought out on stage together at Comic-Con. I do not know whether the movie was screened for that audience first and the cast came out afterward, or whether the cast came out before anyone had seen the footage, and I genuinely hope it was the former. Had I not already seen the movie before getting word that all three had appeared on stage, I would have been upset, because I was genuinely surprised by those reveals.

By the end, I was curious how they would handle Wolverine's fate and half expected them to kill him off again as a final farewell for Hugh Jackman. Instead Deadpool chooses to sacrifice himself alongside him, and they go through it together holding hands, defeating Nova fairly easily and surviving. There is also a moment involving Thor that plays like a tease, and I think that is a Secret Wars reference, since Paradox waves the question away on screen rather than answering it. I figured that thread was not going to pay off in this movie, and I suspect it will show up in a future Avengers film instead.

Verdict: A Fun Love Letter to Fox's X-Men, Not the Multiverse Game Changer Some Expected

Is it a fun movie? Yes. Is it a great explainer of how the multiverse works going forward? Not really. I do not think it is the game changer some people expected. I think the real goal here was to show the whole journey through the Fox universe, the good and the bad, right down to using a Green Day song over a montage that includes footage from movies that were genuinely bad, without treating any of it with contempt. It is also the story of Deadpool and Wolverine both finding purpose, and I am glad they did not kill off Blade, Elektra, Gambit or Dafne Keen's character the way a certain other Marvel multiverse movie killed off its cameos.

I have seen fair criticisms that this is more of a joke fest than the earlier films and bigger in scope than the first one, and I think that is accurate. Deadpool was more grounded, this one is the big multiverse team up. If there is another one, I think it should go back to something smaller rather than staying in that grand mode, because one big movie like this out of three works, but I would not want a steady diet of it. If you went in expecting this to fundamentally reshape how the multiverse works across the MCU going forward, that could hurt your experience. I went in wanting to laugh, wanting a bloody R rated action movie, and wanting real chemistry between Jackman and Reynolds, and I got all of that.

Did you get spoiled by the Comic-Con reveal of Chris Evans, Wesley Snipes and Jennifer Garner before you had a chance to see the movie yourself?