Deadpool 3: How Wolverine and Deadpool Can Deliver A Proper Ending to Fox’s X-Men Universe

The world stood up and took notice of Deadpool 3 this week, when it was revealed that Hugh Jackman would return as Wolverine alongside Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool. That announcement (from Reynolds and Jackman themselves) instantly sparked a thousand other questions – first and foremost being: how will Deadpool 3 explain Jackman’s Logan and Reynolds’ Deadpool coming together – and then, somehow getting themselves into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Fox’s X-Men Movie Universe had a twisted continuity before it ended, with the original X-Men Trilogy, X-Men: First Class, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine, and Logan never seeming to truly come together into one cohesive timeline. However, rather than letting that confusion trip up the X-Men’s reboot in the MCU, Deadpool 3 could clean it all up with one simple story approach: 

Deadpool & Wolverine: The Unkillables

In X-Men comic book lore, there are any number of storylines that feature Wolverine or Deadpool as some of the last (if not last) mutants alive in various timelines. X-Men characters have discovered Wade or Logan often in pretty extreme states of isolation or captivity, having only survived due to the respective healing factors both characters have, which make them virtually unkillable. 

In fact, when introducing the fact that Deadpool 3 would feature Wolverine, actors Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman both geeked out about the idea of Logan and Wade Wilson inflicting horrific injuries on one another without any lasting damage. The healing factors of the characters are what can separate them from the rest of the X-Men characters in any timeline where time runs on too long. 

Secret Wars: Dawn of X

The question of how the X-Men fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been looming for years – and the answer seems like it will most likely be found in the Avengers: Secret Wars event movie. Secret Wars events take different places and/or realities of the Marvel Universe and mashes them together in a tournament of survival. By the end, Marvel always gets to reboot its reality while picking and choosing which elements get to be featured in the new “prime” reality. 

Obviously, in the case of the MCU, the expected goals for Avengers: Secret Wars to let Marvel Studios soft-reboot the franchise, with all the character and/or casting replacements they need done, and entire new waves of characters being brought in. The biggest new wave of characters fans expect to see after Secret Wars are no doubt the X-Men. But Before we get to that new beginning, there needs to be an official ending to what came before. 

Last Days of X

This is where Deadpool 3 comes in. Logan showed Marvel fans just how powerful a final, epilogue ending to a hero’s story can be. Deadpool 3 can take us a step further by showing us how the entire Fox X-Men Universe met its end. 

As stated, X-Men stories like “Days of Future Past,” “Messiah War,” and “House of X/Powers of X” have all shown visions of the future where mutantkind met a dark end at the hands of mankind, machines, or even other mutants, leaving hardcore survivors like Wolverine and Deadpool as the last men standing. If Deadpool 3 follows suit, we can still get the odd-pair road-trip movie with Hugh Jackma’s Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool – only that trip would be across what remains of the X-Men movies timeline, in order to reboot/erase it, or escape it. 

Resting Deadpool 3 in that kind of premise would allow for fans to get true final closure on the X-Men franchise that game before, tying up loose ends and providing final fates for all the characters and actors that came before. It would allow Deadpool to fill in gaps using trademark meta exposition, and the film could ultimately serve as an easy bridge for getting Deadpool and/or Wolverine on deck to make it to the “Battleworld” where the Secret Wars take place.

Deadpool 3 will be released in theaters on September 6, 2024.