The Merc With The Mouth is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios debuted the first teaser trailer for the third Deadpool film during the Super Bowl LVIII broadcast, revealing that the threequel will be called Deadpool & Wolverine. The fresh footage showcased an unmasked (and still scarred) Wade Wilson hosting a birthday party for himself, bringing back supporting players like Shatterstar, Colossus, Dopinger, Blind Al, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Wade’s festivities are interrupted by a knock from Time Variance Authority’s Minutemen armed with Time Sticks. The Minutemen capture Wade and bring him into TVA headquarters through a Time Door.
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Fans will recognize the TVA as the group of timeline police first introduced in Loki Season 1. This undercover agency works beyond space and time, operating to ensure the Multiverse continues without fault. While the TVA showcased in the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer echo much of the aesthetic elements that Loki‘s TVA had, there are enough distinctions to question whether the Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman-led picture are working with an alternate version of the group.
Deadpool’s TVA Features Zero Loki Characters
Aside from matching logos, Deadpool & Wolverine‘s TVA has no crossover characters from either season of Loki. The movie version of the agency are led by Paradox (Matthew MacFadyen, Succession), a character seemingly based on Mr. Paradox, a TVA judge on the Marvel Comics page.
Paradox is positioned in a TVA role similar to Mobius’s in Loki. The last Mobius was seen was in the Loki Season 2 finale where he watched his alternate life play out with uncertainty of what he would do next, seemingly leaving the TVA behind. That TVA in question is a very different agency that the one he joined, as its purpose is now hunting variants of He Who Remains rather than pruning rogue variants.
If this is the same TVA, it’s possible that Paradox filled the void (no pun intended) that Mobius left.
Alternate Uniforms
One small shift comes in the TVA attires.
The TVA agents that confront Deadpool rock SWAT-style armored gear with dark orange “TVA” logos on their chest-plates and helmets. Alternatively, Loki‘s TVA have black “TVA” branding on their chest-plates and none on their helmets. Loki‘s TVA uniforms also have lighter orange accents to them.
Evil Intentions?
While this 145-second trailer hardly tells the entire story, it does feature some dialogue and action that contradicts one another when isolated from the full picture.
“You are special,” Paradox tells Deadpool while showing him snippets from Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor: Ragnarok. “This is your chance to be a hero among heroes.”
Deadpool embraces this opportunity at first, but at some point down the line, things go awry. That’s because subsequent shots showcase Deadpool fighting off TVA Minutemen in both a wintery forest (reminiscent of Age of Ultron‘s opening sequence) as well as The Void (the wasteland pruned variants go from Loki). If Deadpool and the TVA are on opposite sides in multiple locations, this means their battles are far from just a one-off disagreement. Those battles in question are pumped full of Deadpool‘s trademark R-Rated, blood-heavy action.
Considering Loki‘s TVA ended with a protagonistic purpose to bring an end to Kang’s tyranny across the Multiverse, it would be contradictory to now vilify a hero, regardless of how morally grey he is.
Deadpool & Wolverine‘s version of the TVA could be courting Wade Wilson in an opposite manner to how Loki‘s TVA approached the titular trickster back in Summer 2021. Loki Season 1 initially planned on pruning Loki from the jump, but the god of mischief proves himself to be worthy to their mission and lives on. Deadpool & Wolverine‘s TVA are approaching Deadpool with the immediate opportunity to “be a hero,” which could then just be flipped on its head when they reveal their true sinister motives.
Motion to call this alternate R-Rated Time Variance Authority the TV-(M)A?
Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on July 26th.
