Summary
Deadpool & Wolverine, is filled with references and inside jokes about the comic book world, the real world, and everything in between. Deadpool is known for making several jokes that reference the state of comic book movies and comic books, and this third entry in his series has the biggest number of them yet.
Most of these references are about the franchises formerly owned by 20th Century Fox, such as The Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and the X-Men. But there are plenty of other references to the MCU as well, since all these old movies are now technically part of the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse.
8Statue Of The Scarlet Witch
Is She Still Alive?
A lot of hidden details are just outside the focus of the lens, making fans wonder what each little piece could mean, but this one is front and center for just a few seconds. When Deadpool and Wolverine meet the other survivors in the Void, the place they are staying in has a stone carving of the Scarlet Witch, something the camera lingers on for a short moment.
There are plenty of references of established characters from the MCU in the Void, like the corpse of a gigantic Ant-Man used as a fortress by Cassandra Nova. But this one seems like it could be particularly important, leading fans to believe Wanda didn’t die in Multiverse of Madness, but was whisked away into the Void.
7Channing Tatum’s Gambit
The One That Never Was
Of all the cameosthat appeared in Deadpool & Wolverine, the one only the most diehard fans will recognize is the Gambit played by Channing Tatum. This might confuse more casual audiences since the actor never played the character on the big screen, since the one in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was played by Taylor Kitsch.
The reality is that Channing Tatum was going to play Gambit in his own standalone movie, but the project was canceled before it could ever see the light. This is why the jokes surrounding Gambit are about a universe that was never given a chance to be born in the first place.
6Silent Buck
No Speaking Lines
The goal of Deadpool in the movie is to save his universe, since he wants to protect the nine people he loves the most. All these nine people are present during Deadpool’s birthday, and they are all recognizable characters from the past two Deadpool movies.
Buck might not be as recognizable, but he did appear in the first two Deadpool movies as a mercenary friend of Wade. During the second movie, Wade is so taken aback by Buck’s dialogue that he decides that he won’t have any more speaking lines, something referenced when Deadpool reminds Buck to stay silent.
5Deadpool Meeting Happy
It’s A Room Filled With References
When Deadpool meets with Happy Hogan inside the Avengers Compound, the room they are talking in has too many things to count referencing past movies. As the date suggests, this moment in time (May 15, 2025) is after Civil War but before the Thanos Snap, so the surrounding paraphernalia is all about the movies before that point.
4Juggernauts Helm
Why Does It Work Against Cassandra?
A big yet unexplained plot point in the movie is that, to beat Cassandra Nova, the gang of forgotten superheroes will need to use a helmet that can nullify her powers. With Magneto dead and his helmet destroyed, the only other head piece that can do the trick is the one worn by the Juggernaut.
The movie doesn’t explain why that helmet would work, since that property was never explained in the few depictions we’ve had of the character in the live action movies. In the comics, it works because the Juggernaut is Charles Xavier’s brother, so he wanted a headpiece that would protect him from his brother’s powers, so Deadpool & Wolverine make a small homage to the heritage these two characters have in their original incarnations.
3The Stones On The Sling Ring
Blink And You’ll Miss Them
When Cassandra sends Deadpool and Wolverine through a portal to Earth-10005, she does so with a Sling Ring taken from the corpse of a Dr Strange Variant. These Sling Rings are very iconic in the MCU, since they allow travel throughout the universe by opening a simple portal… yet we’ve never seen them allow travel through the multiverse.
The Void seems to be the same one across all universes, so traveling from it to anywhere would be a jump towards a different multiverse.
This is easily explained by taking a closer look at Cassandra’s Sling Ring, since it seems to be embedded with pieces of two Infinity Stones, the Time and Reality ones in particular. This seems to be what allows the user to open a portal to anywhere, possibly any point in both time and space.
2The Deadpool Family
Ryan Brought All The Reynolds
While Deadpool seems to end up with Vanessa once more at the end of the movie, the film still has room for the real-world partner of Ryan Reynolds. When the Deadpool Army arrives, the one playing Lady Deadpool (or at least doing the voice-over) is none other than Blake Lively, Reynold’s wife.
Even their two children have roles in the movie,playing Kidpool and Babypool.Nicepool even references the fact that Lady Deadpool has just had a child, hinting early at the fact that the Deadpool role is something that is shared within the family in this film.
1The Many Real World References
These Are Not Just Jokes
We know that Deadpool likes to break the fourth wall (he simply can’t help it), but he also uses a lot of sarcasm when interacting with other characters. When you don’t know the finer details of what Deadpool is talking about, you might think that everything he says is sarcasm, but there are a few sneaky references thrown throughout.
We decided to include the best one in a single entry, and not all of them involve Deadpool alone:
