It’s no secret that the superhero genre has gone ice cold over the past few years. Now superheroes need their own savior. Luckily, they’ve got two.
Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine is opening in theaters July 26 and early box office projections suggest that it may soon have the biggest R-rated opening of all-time. Much of the credit for that goes to the two leading men, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, who are reuniting as the titular characters for the first time since 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
While the Marvel Cinematic Universe is steeped in lore, superfans and first-time viewers alike will find something to enjoy in the film’s banter, the bloody fighting and the bawdy jokes.
Ahead of its release, here’s everything you need to know about Deadpool & Wolverine.
Common origins
Both Deadpool and Wolverine weren’t as popular as they are now. In 1974, Incredible Hulk writer Len Wein and artist Herb Trimpe introduced Wolverine as an adversary for the title character. Marvel art director John Romita Sr. designed Wolverine’s first costume, which has greatly evolved over the years.
Following a short stint fighting the Hulk, Wolverine reappeared alongside a new team of mutant heroes in Giant-Size X-Men Vol. 1 in 1975, which revitalized that franchise. Wolverine quickly became the X-Men’s breakout character, and by 1988, he had his own ongoing comic book series.
Deadpool didn’t appear in the comic books until 1990 as a villain who was promptly dispatched in The New Mutants 98. Writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Rob Liefeld co-created the character, although Liefeld departed Marvel to co-found Image Comics before Deadpool was fully fleshed out. Nicieza and subsequent writers including Joe Kelly, Christopher Priest, Daniel Way and Gerry Duggan further developed Deadpool’s wacky persona as he transformed from a minor villain into one of Marvel’s most popular antiheroes.
The 1st team-up
Jackman was already firmly established as Wolverine after making three X-Men movies before headlining his own spin-off, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Reynolds, who had been lobbying 20th Century Fox to make a Deadpool movie, was cast as the character in this prequel story. Reynolds’s part was little more than a cameo in the opening minutes of the film, but he has referred back to the experience as the beginning of his long friendship with Jackman.
But Deadpool fans and Reynolds alike were aghast when the character showed up for the film’s final battle in an unrecognizable state with his mouth removed and his entire power set changed for the whims of the story. It left such a bad taste in Reynolds’s mouth that he revisited this moment years later in Deadpool 2′s mid-credits scene, in which his character went back in time and murdered the version of himself from X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Big-screen reunion
Reynolds openly lobbied for Jackman to reprise his role with him in the Deadpool movies, even after the latter “retired” from the part following his performance in 2017’s Logan. Without the genuine article, Reynolds had to settle for making several jokes at Jackman’s expense, especially in Deadpool 2.
However, it was Jackman’s change of heart in 2022 that reinvigorated the prospects of a third Deadpool installment, which soon morphed into Deadpool & Wolverine.
“Everyone assumed that Hugh’s return was the result of me or Ryan pestering or pitching him relentlessly,” Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy told Entertainment Weekly in May 2024. “But even more miraculously, this was the result of a Hugh Jackman epiphany. He wanted to do this team-up of Logan and Deadpool, and so it really was a sky-opening gift from the heavens type of phone call that changed everything.”
Into the MCU
Deadpool & Wolverine may be a stand-alone movie among Marvel films, but it might help if you’ve already watched Loki on Disney+. The Tom Hiddleston-led series introduced fans to the Time Variance Authority (TVA), a group that polices the Marvel multiverse.
Through the TVA’s Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), Deadpool is recruited to save his timeline from being destroyed. To pull that off, Deadpool needs Wolverine’s help.
Marvel and Jackman have repeatedly said that the Wolverine featured in this film will not be the same variant who died in Logan. But the events of that movie will be revisited in Deadpool & Wolverine as the title characters go up against Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), the amoral twin sister of X-Men leader Charles Xavier who has no qualms about using her mental abilities to crush her enemies.
Blast from the past
Several actors from 20th Century Fox’s X-Men movies will be making their return in Deadpool and Wolverine. Deadpool characters Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin), Peter (Rob Delaney), Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), Dopinder (Karan Soni), Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan) and Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) are all back for at least a few minutes in the film.
From the final trailer, fans have learned that Tyler Mane is reprising his role as Wolverine’s nemesis, Sabretooth, for the first time in 24 years. Similarly, there’s been an 18-year gap since Aaron Stanford last portrayed Pyro in X-Men: The Last Stand.
Jackman’s Logan co-star, Dafne Keen, is also returning as Wolverine’s biological daughter, Laura/X-23.
There will be other cameos, but Marvel is not revealing that information until the movie’s release.
Deadpool & Wolverine premieres in theaters on July 26.
