With star-studded cameos, plenty of fight scenes, sarcasm and innuendos, Deadpool & Wolverine is filled with fan service. Nearly every quip feels like an inside joke, whether a nod to past projects, alternate Marvel universes, or fandom memes and rumors. Yet, possibly most confusing to the non-superfan viewers are the references—or rather a collective diss track—to 2oth Century FOX (FOXA) and The Walt Disney Company (DIS).
The Fox Marvel universe always existed alongside the main Marvel series produced by Disney. However, this changed in 2019 when Disney acquired Fox’s studio assets, including the rights to Marvel characters. As one of the largest media mergers ever, the $71.3 billion deal was significant news for both the industry and Marvel fans, who speculated whether the two Marvel universes would finally coexist on screen. Fox originated the on-screen adaption for both of the titular characters: Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine began his onscreen journey in 2000 as part of the vast X-Men series, while Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool made his first appearance in the spinoff X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009, followed by two solo movies in 2016 and 2018.
Here are five references to Fox and Disney in the movie and what they actually mean. (Spoiler warning!)
Deadpool & Wolverine is the first crossover movie since the Fox-Disney merger, and Deadpool’s signature fourth-wall breaks set up nicely for jokes about the production side of the film. The movie opens with Deadpool addressing the film’s production delays because “things got weird,” including Disney’s purchase of Fox, announced in December 2017 and completed in March 2019, along with last year’s Hollywood strikes.
Deadpool is captured by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) and first believes they’re taking him to join the Avengers and breaks the fourth wall. He turns to the camera to say, “Suck it, Fox. I’m going to Disneyland,” referencing his rejection by the Avengers during the Fox era.
When the TVA tells Deadpool his timeline is deteriorating due to the death of Wolverine, revealed to be the timeline’s “anchor being,” it prompts Deadpool to travel to the multiverse and find a variant of Wolverine to save his timeline.
Wolverine was initially killed off at the end of Logan in 2017, but Deadpool brings him back from the dead and says, “Fox killed him. Disney brought him back. They’re going to make him do this until he’s 90,” which becomes a recurring joke throughout the film.
Deadpool is delighted to discover the Wolverine he has chosen is wearing a yellow suit and jokes Wolverine “doesn’t look embarrassed to be in a superhero movie for once” and that it took “only 20 years” for Wolverine to wear his famous blue-and-yellow costume, a reference to the fact that Wolverine donned all black, instead of the classic costume in the Fox movies.
Wolverine and Deadpool fight each other while in the “Void,” which essentially serves as the junkyard of the TVA for the remains of alternate universes that it has “pruned.” Deadpool and Wolverine face off in front of a giant Fox logo buried in the sand, symbolizing the end of Fox’s Marvel legacy: Fox is now irrelevant in the trash, while Disney takes over the franchise’s reins. Deadpool drives the point home with a “rest in peace Fox” as the battle ends.
As the typically family-friendly studio’s first R-rated film, it embraces the vulgarity of the first two films. Still, it jokes about Disney censorship—like Deadpool’s conversation with his roommate, Blind Al, where they joke about doing cocaine using different slang terms; Deadpool laments that “they know all the terms,” referring to Disney producers. Later, Deadpool warns Captain America, played by Chris Evans, who is a part of the Disney Marvel universe, that in this film, they’re using indecent language but that “we’ve been prohibited from using cocaine,” referencing the jump from Disney’s typical rating.
Despite the banter throughout the film, as the closing credits roll, we see a montage of behind-the-scenes footage from every Fox Marvel movie, followed by one last pan of the iconic logo. The merger may be closing a chapter in the Marvel universe, but the Deadpool & Wolverine crossover should give fans hope that some of the stories of their beloved characters might not be over yet.
