At this point, Deadpool & Wolverine has become such a box office hit, crossed so many milestones and broken enough records that a follow-up seems like a sure thing. So, where do Deadpool and Wolverine go from here?
In all likelihood, both will probably show up in Avengers: Secret Wars, if not Avengers: Doomsday before it. But given the long-time friendship and collaborative partnership between stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman with director Shawn Levy — and their experience working together on Deadpool & Wolverine — it would be surprising if the trio didn’t reunite for another entry, in the aftermath of Secret Wars.
The team-up formula seems to work in Deadpool’s favor, so whether future installments pair him with a lot or a little of Wolverine, adding additional characters to the mix would be an exciting direction for the franchise going forward — especially if it allows the MCU to explore some of the comics’ wilder locales, concepts and characters. After all, Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic’s story, which serves as the basis of the upcoming Avengers film, didn’t just destroy the multiverse, it gave birth to a new one while keeping certain favorites in circulation. The multiverse may have less impact on the MCU overall post-Secret Wars but it feels like the perfect, unlimited arena for Deadpool to explore when the narrative calls for it.
Below are some potential team-ups that could see the Merc with the Mouth let loose in the MCU.
Deadpool & Wolverine (Again)
Perhaps the most obvious choice is to focus on Deadpool and Wolverine’s dynamic again. It’s a classic buddy formula with two engaging leads that can sustain itself. But as James Cameron famously, and so confidently, pitched a sequel to Alien (1979) by putting a dollar sign behind the title and thus launching Aliens (1986), more than one Wolverine could certainly up the ante and change the stakes of Deadpool and Logan’s dynamic.
This concept doesn’t need to go crazy with Wolverine variants, and a Wolverine Corps would feel like the antithesis of the character since they’d probably all hate each other. However, one additional Wolverine would be fascinating to explore, and that Wolverine should be X-23/Laura (Dafne Keen). Laura made a surprise return in Deadpool & Wolverine, or an almost surprise since the final trailer spoiled it the week before release. And she’s clearly come into her own in the time since Logan (2017). At the end of Deadpool & Wolverine, she’s seen alongside the titular heroes, suggesting a place of permeance in their found family.
The comic books have made Laura increasingly prominent over the years, and she also goes by Wolverine and has her own version of the classic yellow and blue costume. She’s also a central character in the recent ongoing comic, NYX, by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly and Francesco Mortarino, alongside her pal Ms. Marvel. Perhaps a spot on Kamala Khan’s (Iman Vellani) budding Young Avengers team is in Laura’s MCU future if there’s a certain synergy at play. But that wouldn’t prevent Laura from also showing up in another Deadpool & Wolverine film, which could serve as an exploration of the father-daughter relationship between Logan and Laura at this stage in their lives, with Deadpool serving as the fun uncle. Set the movie on the dinosaur-inhabited Savage Land, introduce local inhabitants Ka-Zar and Shanna, and pit them against Sauron, a geneticist turned Pterodactyl-man and his dino-human hybrids, the Savage Land mutates. That’s a peak comic book movie right there.
Deadpool & Wolverine… and Gambit, Too!
Channing Tatum’s Gambit proved to be one of the breakout characters of Deadpool & Wolverine, a major turn of good fortune for Tatum who was previously attached to play his favorite character in a solo film before the 20th Century Fox acquisition. During the post-credit scene of Deadpool & Wolverine, Gambit is seen on the monitor, having survived his encounter with Alioth. Marvel Studios recently released the full scene online, which sees Gambit approaching a “magic sparkle circle” leading him back to his world (or another), and perhaps suggesting that there’s more of Tatum’s character to come.
The Cajun’s appearances here and in X-Men 97 have brought the character back into the limelight, and Tatum is certainly gung-ho to play the role again and resurrect the canceled solo film. While a solo film might be a harder sell within the MCU, placing him in a central role alongside Deadpool and Wolverine would give the character more time to shine, especially if the film is set in Louisiana and focuses on Gambit’s history with the Thieves Guild. While the MCU has dabbled with the heist film subgenre with Ant-Man, a dirtier, twistier, swamp-born version of the heist film could be a fitting narrative engine for Gambit, Deadpool and Wolverine’s team-up, as the Ragin’ Cajun calls on his former allies to help him pull off the theft of some life-restoring McGuffin (Marvel certainly isn’t in lacking in those) from Candra The Red Death, the Goddess of Thieves to settle a score and resurrect his wife Belladonna. Action, romance, violence, impenetrable accents, double-crosses and mutandom’s greatest gamblers, Deadpool, Wolverine and Gambit could make for a high-stakes hit.
Deadpool & Wolverine & Hulk
Deadpool & Wolverine recreated Todd McFarlane’s iconic cover for The Incredible Hulk No. 340, teasing a showdown between Logan and the Hulk. The two angriest men in the Marvel Universe have quite the history together, with Wolverine making his first full appearance in Len Wein, Herb Trimple and John Romita’s The Incredible Hulk No. 181 (1974), after being teased in No. 180. The two have clashed and teamed up numerous times over the years, but we’ve never seen them duke it out on the big screen.
A Deadpool & Wolverine follow-up that brings the Hulk into the fray could be an interesting way to explore Weapon X, a government-sanctioned program responsible for creating the next generation of super-soldiers. Hulk, Deadpool, Wolverine and Laura/X-23 each tie to the program in different ways, with Wolverine, X-23 and Deadpool being the direct result from it in the comics, and the MCU’s version of Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) becoming the Hulk after attempting to recreate the super-soldier serum that created Captain America.
With the acquisition of adamantium serving as a focal point in the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World, an official version of Weapon X may soon make its MCU debut. The emergence of a new breed of super-solder could lead to a team-up between the four heroes, and a battle of claws, fists and katanas to take on Weapon H, former military mercenary Clayton Cortez, who is turned into a Hulk with an adamantium skeleton and claws the size of an average person by Weapon X. Yes, he’s just as terrifying as he sounds. Add She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) to the mix as a supporting character and we could be in for gamma-level fourth wall smashing.
Deadpool & Wolverine: Assault on Olympus
This one may come a little out of left field, but what is Deadpool good for if not taking wild swings? The mid-credits scene of Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) sees Zeus (Russell Crowe) sending his son Hercules (Brett Goldstein) to kill Thor. The God of Thunder and the Champion of Olympus have a storied rivalry and friendship in the comics, but at this point in Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) arc, Hercules feels too small an adversary, and the depiction of Zeus too comedic to make for anything more than a perfunctory Thor installment. Hercules, as far as the Marvel Comics version goes, is driven by pleasure and fame, so it’s easy to imagine that his quest to kill Thor becomes sidetracked as he’s swept up in all that Earth has to offer.
So, let’s say Hercules’ quest for fun finds him in Sister Margaret’s for Wayward Children, the bar from the first two Deadpool films, and there he meets Wade and Logan. They swap stories, and Hercules finds them so entertaining that he takes them back to Olympus to impress the gods. Imagine the kinds of hijinks the self-proclaimed “Marvel Jesus” could get up to with the Pantheon of the Gods, and the battles against mythic Greek monsters he, Wolverine and Hercules might find themselves in? Let’s see a Ray Harryhausen-inspired stop-motion sequence against an army of the dead, and a Clash of the Titans-styled twist on the battle against Medusa. Given how much Greek mythology has seeped into our pop culture, the possibilities to nod to, while refashioning classic myths., are endless. Imagine the trio’s pursuits in Olympus end up putting the gods at odds with each other and creating a scenario for Hercules’s shamed brother, Ares, to attempt to wrest control of Olympus from their father. There’s only one way Hercules and his newfound friends can defeat him. Release the Kraken!
Deadpool & Spider-Man
One of the most requested team-ups since Deadpool made his onscreen debut is to see him team up with Spider-Man. The idea became so popular, it led to the launch of comic book Spider-Man/Deadpool, which ran for 50 issues between 2016 and 2019. While the two make for an odd mix, Peter sees the potential in Deadpool to be his best self, despite his constant annoyance; though Deadpool, who aims to live up to Spidey’s belief in him, all too frequently disappoints simply by being Deadpool. But it’s a friendship that grows over the series as they take on numerous adversaries. Plus, they can wash their costumes together without the colors running.
It’d be surprising if Deadpool doesn’t share a scene with Spider-Man (Tom Holland) in Avengers: Secret Wars, but Holland’s version of Peter Parker is still young, earnest and coming into his own. At this point in his career, he doesn’t yet feel like he has the experience to handle someone like Deadpool. So, my bold suggestion would be to pair Deadpool with a different Spider-Man, a quippier variant, who can play the annoyed support system and has the wisdom of years behind him.
Andrew Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man feels like the ideal Spider-Man to pair Deadpool with, and for the two to trade barbs back and forth. It’s not that Garfield’s Spider-Man is cynical, but he carries a certain sense of exhaustion and burden with him that would allow him to press all the right buttons with Deadpool, and vice versa. Dig if you will the picture: Deadpool and Spider-Man are captured by alien slaver, Mojo, and trapped in the Mojoverse, a dimension where slaves participate in television, film and video narratives that function as live gladiator battles for a planet of entertainment-addicted inhabitants. Teaming up with two of Mojo’s most popular enslaved entertainers, Longshot and Dazzler (maybe Taylor Swift could be involved for real this time), Spider-Man and Deadpool fight their way through film and television genre conventions to get back home. And if that doesn’t sound like pure cinema, well it’s close enough to maybe secure a Scorsese cameo. (I kid!)
