Deadpool is a typically irreverent affair, but you can count on the franchise for two things: fan service and heart. Marvel boss Kevin Feige previously described the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine as “incredibly emotional” and “the most wholesome R-rated film that anybody can ever see.” This week it was reported that “there were grown men, like, sobbing on set” when Hugh Jackman did a camera test in Wolverine’s iconic yellow suit. All of this is encapsulated in the final trailer for the film (premiering July 26), which serves as a hagiography for the Wolverine we lost in Logan—and brings back a crucial character from that movie.Yes, X-23 (Dafne Keen) is one of the promised big-time cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine. This version of Logan needs some convincing to be a hero, so Wade and Laura both take turns convincing him to step up and help save the world. “In my world, you’re well regarded. You were an X-Man. Fuck that, you were the X-Man. The Wolverine. He was a hero in my world,” an emotional Wade explains over flashes from Wolverine’s previous appearances, including his death in Logan. But this is a different world’s Logan: “Whoever you think I am, you’ve got the wrong guy,” he grouches. “You were always the wrong guy… ’til you weren’t,” responds an older Laura. The multiverse situation in Deadpool & Wolverine is ever so slightly complicated. Deadpool is a spin-off franchise of 20th Century Fox’s X-Men movies, but 20th Century Fox is now dead (as evidenced by the crumbling monument seen early in the trailer), so he’s supposedly part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe now. Introducing X-23 as a young adult reaffirms that Logan is canon in the Deadpool-verse, but would also mean this movie is set somewhere in the late 2030s. That could account for the post-apocalyptic imagery in some of the fight scenes in the trailer. Of course, the MCU can do a lot of hand waving at the timey-wimey aspects of this film (and any other) now that the entire franchise has doubled down on the multiverse as a concept. Part of the film appears to include Wade getting recruited by the Time Variance Authority (a job that suits him pretty well, given Deadpool’s fourth wall-breaking omniscience), which allows the film to mix and match elements from any “timeline” to suit the plot.Comic book fans are primed to understand this kind of complicated interconnected web of timelines and universes, but it may give laymen a bit of a headache trying to fully understand what’s now canon and where. Suffice to say, it’s all one big gimmick to be able to put Deadpool, Wolverine, Sabretooth, and X-23 in the same movie, while still being able to potentially recast some of those characters when the MCU wants to make its own X-Men team. Who knows what other cameos are in store—this trailer teases a mysterious Lady Deadpool (Played by… Taylor Swift? Blake Lively? Morena Baccarin in a blonde wig?). There are clearly a lot of variants running around, so this movie is going to hit its fan service and emotional requirements quickly!
