Deadpool & Wolverine is a lot of things, but not all of them work well: It’s a (mostly) sincere love letter to 20th Century Fox superhero movies, a worthy R-rated Deadpool sequel, a buddy comedy, and a film that both rejects and embraces the storytelling style of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s also a mix of surprising and unexpected cameos at points, some of which work a lot better than others.
The film’s cameos will surely be much talked about in the coming days and weeks, and it’s easy to see why. (After all, Hugh Jackman isn’t the only iconic comic book movie actor returning for the sequel.) But the presence of characters like Jennifer Garner’s Elektra, Chris Evans’ Human Torch, Wesley Snipes’ Blade, Dafne Keen’s X-23, and Channing Tatum’s Gambit, while supporting Deadpool & Wolverine’s mission to say a final farewell to Marvel’s Fox era, also gives the film too many opportunities to make some increasingly tired MCU mistakes.
Marvel inexplicably chose to spoil X-23’s return in the final trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine.
Marvel Studios
The biggest problem with the Deadpool and Wolverine cameos is that they’re basically used lazily. The film is trying to sell itself as a kind of conclusion to an era of comic book movies that fans assumed was over five years ago, and Garner’s Elektra says as much. She and the other noble Valians, who team up with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and Jackman’s Wolverine in the film’s second act, claim to want to give themselves the closure that TVA, Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) and, in a very metatextual sense, Disney robbed them of. The problem is that Deadpool and Wolverine never really gives the audience any reason to care about these characters or their shared plight.
The film relies heavily on audiences’ existing connections to Garner’s Elektra, Tatum’s Gambit, Snipes’ Blade, and Keen’s Laura, but 2005’s Elektra was widely disliked by critics and audiences alike, and Gambit was never even made. Additionally, it’s been 20 years since Snipes last appeared in a film as Blade, so many of Deadpool & Wolverine’s younger audiences likely won’t identify as much with his character. But Deadpool & Wolverine relies on audience nostalgia to get the job done, rather than taking the time to explore other stripped-down heroes.
The film makes a similar mistake in the climactic fireside conversation between Wolverine and Laura, which serves as an emotional wake-up call for Wolverine. After revealing parts of his tragic past, Wolverine tells Laura that she and her friends put their trust in someone who didn’t deserve it. “You picked the wrong guy,” he says, to which Laura replies, “You were the wrong guy all along… until you weren’t.” It’s the moment of recognition, insight, and support Logan needs to pull himself out of his spiral of depression, and both Keen and Jackman play it so well that it’s easy to ignore the fact that it doesn’t make sense in the context of Deadpool and Wolverine.
In 2017’s Logan, Jackman’s Wolverine spends days with Laura, only growing closer to her after experiencing several major losses that break down his self-imposed barriers. Their bond is ultimately emotionally rich, but also hard-earned. But in Wolverine vs. Deadpool, Logan opens up to Laura right away because… Reynolds’ Wade tells him that one of his Valiant sacrificed himself for her. The Wolverine in this film has nothing to do with Laura, so it makes no sense for him to open up so soon about the hurt he carries deep inside. Their conversation is thus another example of Wolverine vs. Deadpool trying to cash in on the audience’s bond with another film.
Deadpool and Wolverine try to cash in on the success of Logan’s richest relationship, but fail.
20th Century Fox
When done well, a cameo can actually support a superhero’s on-screen journey (see: 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home); when it doesn’t, it’s often a calorie-free distraction that provides little more than a momentary high. Lately, Marvel seems to have forgotten that distinction. In fact, Deadpool & Wolverine sometimes feels like an extended version of the Illuminati scene from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but without Sam Raimi’s delightfully wicked conclusion.
Packed with Easter eggs, cameos, and jokes at the expense of the MCU, Deadpool & Wolverine forgets to pay necessary attention to the main story, like our heroes’ reluctant friendship and Wade and Vanessa’s (Morena Baccarin) offscreen breakup. It gives X-23 an emotional conversation that should have been a bonding moment between Deadpool and Wolverine, and overall relies on multiple previous non-Deadpool films to do a fair amount of work. Unfortunately, this is a mistake Marvel has been making lately, and it’s holding the entire MCU back.
(Dogpool is innocent, though.)
Deadpool & Wolverine is in theaters now. Learn something new every day.
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