For the first time in what feels like forever, it looks like Marvel Studios is cooking up something extra special with Deadpool & Wolverine. And just as well, because the stakes (namely, salvaging a franchise in a post-Quantumania world) have never been higher.
Who better to come clean up the mess of their more lucrative canon cousins, after all, than the two juggernauts of the Fox universe of Marvel films, the wisecracking, ever-unquenchable Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and the brooding but ferocious Wolverine (Hugh Jackman)? Indeed, step aside, Disney; it’s time for the seasoned veterans to go to work here.
And with so many champions of the Fox universe (among them Jennifer Garner’s Elektra, of all people) joining the fray as well, those of you who somehow aren’t brushed up on the nuances here might begin to ask: Is Deadpool & Wolverine even technically an MCU film at this point?
Is Deadpool & Wolverine a part of the MCU?
This question feels equal parts long overdue and supremely redundant, but yes, Deadpool & Wolverine does in fact take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, hence Deadpool’s frequent fourth-wall-breaking lines referencing that fact.
One might understand the confusion, though; a swath of Fox universe characters all rolling up to do battle in what appears to be a vague, neutral, desolate wasteland—to say nothing of Deadpool & Wolverine‘s many un-Disney-like elements—could reasonably call into question just how many feet the film has in the Marvel Studios door.
Make no mistake, though; this movie, Fox pieces and all, has been signed off as mainline MCU fare and is firmly a part of its canon. In other words, it’s what Sony’s Spider-Man Universe likes to pretend it is on occasion.
Indeed, forget Captain America; Deadpool & Wolverine is the true brave new world of the moment, and we can only hope it fulfills its daunting prophecy when it slices and dices its way into cinemas on July 26.
(featured image: Marvel Studios)
