Deadpool Holiday Special Puts a Yuletide Twist on Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine

Deadpool is sleighing the holidays. The Merc with a Mouth made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut this summer in Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine, which went on to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time at the global box office with a total of $1.3 billion. Disney brought the best bubs to Avengers Campus, the Marvel-themed section of Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort, to entertain park-goers with a reading of family-friendly tales during its Story Time with Deadpool limited-time offering — the first Disney Parks experience to be based on an R-rated movie.

In the spirit of synergy and good old fashioned yuletide tradition, Disney has turned Story Time with Deadpool into the all-new Story Time with Deadpool Holiday Special. In the 10-minute show, “Deadpool is filled with holiday cheer and is here to share some new, super-special, seasonal stories,” per the official description. “These tales will delight, charm and celebrate the holidays in the way only Deadpool can.”

ComicBook attended a showing of the Story Time with Deadpool Holiday Special, hosted at the former queue area for Rogers: The Musical (located near Terran Treats, in between the Hyperion Theater and the Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout ride). The live entertainment offering is exclusive to Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, Calif., during the Holidays at the Disneyland Resort (Nov. 15, 2024 — Jan. 6, 2025).

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With its fourth wall-breaking references — everything from Disney+ (where Deadpool & Wolverine is streaming now) to Wesley Snipes’ vampire hunter Blade, Jennifer Garner’s sai-wielding assassin Elektra, and a crack at Channing Tatum’s Cajun-accented mutant Gambit — the show is appropriately on-brand for Deadpool, and hilariously meta. Unlike the R-rated Deadpool & Wolverine, however, the Deadpool Holiday Special is appropriate for all ages (but still surprisingly saucier than typical Disney Parks entertainment).

The Story Time with Deadpool Holiday Special is similar to Once Upon a Deadpool, the Christmas-themed, PG-13 edit of 2018’s R-rated Deadpool 2. But instead of reading a PG-13 version of Deadpool to a grown-up and tucked-in Fred Savage (with framing like The Princess Bride), Deadpool’s Holiday Special plays out with the good guy in red —Santa Pool — riding in on a unicorn before reading a “holiday-themed tale full of yuletide cheer.”

Written by “Sir Xavier Charles Dickens” and presented by Disney+ — “a streaming service that understands quality content,” Deadpool remarks, before quipping past his mandated “pandering section” of the sponsorship — Deadpool puts a twist on A Christmas Carol with a tale about Wade Cratchett and a “hairy, vile, ugly, smelly, prickly, miserly old brute”: bah-humbugging X-Man Loganezer Scrooge. In another variation of the show, Deadpool reads another Christmas tale from his big book of super-special stories: “A delightful and not-at-all-inappropriate holiday-themed tale to jingle your holiday bells, pulled from the public domain.”

Titled “‘Twas the Night a Strange Magical Man Shimmied Down My Tight Little Chimney,” the poem is rife with some raunchy references to Deadpool & Wolverine. We present it below:

The Story Time with Deadpool Holiday Special: A Poem

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through this safe house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
Not Elektra nor Blade or that weirdo Gambit (“I’m about to make a name for myself right here,” I could not understand him!)
The stockings and holsters well hung by the chimney with care
In hopes that old Santa Pool soon would be there
Dogpool was nestled all snug in her bed
While visions of face-licking danced in her head
Wolvie wore his cowl, he waited 20 years to wear it
Peterpool wore a vest, and the rest, he just bared it
When out on the lawn arose such a clatter
They all leapt from their beds to see what was the matter
Away to the window they flew like a Flash (Probably should have should “Quicksilver” there for IP-related reasons)
They ripped open the shutters and tore down the sash (Oh, it’s because nothing rhymes with “Quicksilver,” got it)
The Moon reflected on the fresh-fallen snow, it gave luster of midday to objects below
When what to their wandering eye should appear, but a shiny red sleigh and eight awesome reindeer
There was a fast-talking driver, all red, black, and cool
They knew in a moment it must be Santa Pool

When Wolverine crashes the festivities, Santa Pool and his “grumpy gumdrop” riff with the audience until he convinces the “Broadway-trained actor” to finish reading the story.

Santa Pool, his eyes, how they twinkled, his dimples, how merry
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry
He had an obnoxious red suit and a little round belly that shook when he laughed
Like a bowl full of jelly
He spoke not a word — yeah, right
But went straight to his work
He filled all the stockings like a merry old jerk (a merc)
He laid a finger aside his nose and giving a nod, up the chimney he rose
I heard him exclaim as he flew out of sight:
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

The Story Time with Deadpool Holiday Special has multiple showtimes daily at Hollywood Land in Disney California Adventure Park. The Holidays at the Disneyland Resort runs until Jan. 6, 2025.