Right from the beginning (okay, maybe not X-Men Origins: Wolverine), the big-screen outings of Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool have been… well, distinctly Deadpoolian affairs. In his 2016 debut feature, he made a joke about fondling Wolverine’s nether-regions before laying gory waste to a car full of goons. In 2019’s Deadpool 2, he finally assembled the long-rumoured X-Force team – before thrusting them into a skydiving mission that killed them all off instantly. Now, he’s changing things up once again for his third outing – teaming up with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine for a reality-breaking adventure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And despite the dual-headline status of title Deadpool & Wolverine, make no mistake – tonally, this is Deadpool through and through.
“It feels like the most Deadpool movie in the history of Deadpool,” Ryan Reynolds promises Empire in the world-exclusive Deadpool & Wolverine issue. What that means remains to be seen, although if we were to put money on it, we'd imagine that the film will contain a sprinkling of the old ultraviolence, f-bombs galore, and all kinds of meta mayhem, in the glorious Deadpool tradition — not curtailed by the character’s arrival into the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe, but instead given fresh opportunities to blow the bloody doors off. Because while the film sees Wade Wilson trying to live a quieter domestic life, he’s soon pulled into the TVA by agents working for Matthew Macfadyen’s boss Mr Paradox. There, according to Marvel boss Kevin Feige, Wade is shown the Sacred Timeline – “the most glorious place in the world” – with all its heroic allure. “Deadpool is very intrigued by that,” Feige tells Empire. But Paradox’s plan might not be what Wade expects. “He learns soon thereafter that it’s not quite as simple an offer as he thought it was,” adds Feige. “And the stakes are universe-sized.”
Cue a team-up with everyone’s favourite X-Man, for a Deadpool adventure like no other – paying off a screen partnership between Wade Wilson and Wolverine (and a personal friendship between Reynolds and Jackman) that extends all the way back to 2009. “As much as I take the ever-loving fucking piss out of him each and every day, underneath that is a genuine love story,” says Reynolds of their bond. Expect all of that camaraderie to make it on to the screen. “As adversarial as we are in the movie, the undercurrent is one of real love. Getting to spend time with my two closest friends, and waking up in the morning with a passionate devotion to say something so horrendous that they fall over laughing is a gift.” Who’s ready to unwrap it?
Read Empire’s full Deadpool & Wolverine cover feature – speaking to Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, director Shawn Levy, Marvel boss Kevin Feige and more – in the Summer 2024 issue, on sale Thursday 9 May. Pre-order a copy online here. Deadpool & Wolverine comes to UK cinemas from 25 July.