Lines In Deadpool & Wolverine That Are More Important Than You Think
The "Merc With a Mouth" finally joins the MCU in "Deadpool & Wolverine," another joke-filled R-rated outing that's as meta as it is Marvel. If some of these zingers flew right over your head, you're not alone—and we're here to help.
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00:00The Merc with a Mouth finally joins the MCU in Deadpool and Wolverine, another joke-filled,
00:04R-rated outing that's as meta as it is Marvel. If some of these zingers flew right over your
00:09head, you're not alone, and we're here to help.
00:13At the beginning of the movie, Deadpool unearths the skeleton of the Wolverine who died at
00:16the end of Logan, and to put it lightly, isn't very kind to the remains. Later, a TVA agent
00:22who's horrified to see what Deadpool has done gives his opinion about the whole thing.
00:26There are many ways that this agent could express his love of Wolverine. He could say
00:30he was a great hero. He could say he saved a lot of people. He could even say that he
00:34had great hair. But instead, he says that Wolverine is the only thing worth a s**t to
00:38ever come out of Canada. That's a very specific jab at Deadpool, and Ryan Reynolds. If you
00:43can believe anything Deadpool says, he's Canadian.
00:46A hush falls over the crowd as rookie sensation Wade W. Wilson out of Regina, Saskatchewan
00:53lines up the shot.
00:54And Ryan Reynolds definitely began his life story in Vancouver, British Columbia. Wolverine,
00:59too, was born in Canada, despite the person who plays him, Hugh Jackman, being Australian.
01:03In the end, Deadpool does not take the insult lightly, either for himself or his real-life
01:08alter ego.
01:09In the montage toward the beginning of the movie, in which Deadpool searches for a Logan
01:13to bring back to his universe, Henry Cavill makes a surprise appearance as the only version
01:17of Wolverine not played by Hugh Jackman. It allows Deadpool to take a fourth wall-breaking
01:21shot at the DC Extended Universe, something Cavill wouldn't do but is probably happy to
01:26listen to.
01:27After Cavill turns around from working on his motorcycle and Deadpool notices that
01:31he's not Hugh Jackman, Deadpool says,
01:33"...I can't believe the way they treated you down the street."
01:36Marvel's offices at Walt Disney Studios and DC Home Warner Bros. Studios are literally
01:41a mile apart from each other in Burbank, California. DC definitely did Henry Cavill dirty. Cavill
01:46played Superman for several movies and was preparing to return to the role when DC changed
01:51directions, letting Cavill go and replacing him with no warning.
01:54While this quote doesn't directly reference Cavill's DC legacy, if you know about the
01:58Marvel-DC rivalry, then down the street has an all-new meaning. While Cavill has remained
02:03a gentleman about the snub, Deadpool has no need to be.
02:06When Deadpool and Wolverine find themselves in the Void, Deadpool, as the chattier one,
02:11feels he has to introduce Wolverine to those they meet and fill in any extra details just
02:15for fun. But one of those details hits a little close to home. At one point, Deadpool says,
02:20"...he's usually shirtless, but he's let himself go since the divorce."
02:23Of course, Wolverine is not and has never been married. But those familiar with Hugh
02:27Jackman's love life will know that he recently divorced his wife of 27 years, Debra Lee Furness.
02:33It's a rough little jab, considering the divorce only happened in September 2023, but apparently
02:37Jackman was okay with including it. Of course, later, we learn that he hasn't let himself
02:42go one bit when Jackman reveals his torso in all its glory. The comment was just Deadpool's
02:46way of being snarky. Wolverine has perfect pecs, as usual.
02:51Deadpool gives himself the moniker Marvel Jesus, or MJ if you're nasty, because, since
02:55Deadpool and Wolverine is the first Deadpool film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he'll
02:59be the savior that will help Marvel's fortunes rise from the ashes after some unfortunate
03:04box office bombs. However, it's also a reference to the Jacksons. And while many will think
03:08it's an allusion to Michael Jackson because of the MJ, this is specifically a callback
03:13to Janet Jackson, who said her name is Janet Miss Jackson, if you're nasty, in her 1986
03:18hit song, Nasty.
03:20When Deadpool and Wolverine are taken to Cassandra Nova's headquarters in the Void, the Merc
03:24with a Mouth needs something to threaten the bad guys with, and he comes up with the perfect
03:28dig, at least if you don't like musical theater. He declares, quote, he'll sing the entire second
03:33act of Music Man with no warm-up. He's referring to Logan in this quote, and while Logan doesn't
03:37look much like a song-and-dance man, the person who plays him, Hugh Jackman, is. In fact,
03:42Hugh Jackman has had a whole career on Broadway, which has included starring as Harold Hill
03:47in The Music Man.
03:48River City isn't in any trouble. Then I'll have to create some.
03:51He spent a year in the Broadway revival, from December 2021 to January 2023, and received
03:56a Tony nomination for Best Actor for his performance, after already winning one in 2004 for another
04:01Broadway show, The Boy from Oz. So while singing without a warm-up might be hard, Hugh Jackman,
04:06and therefore Wolverine, could certainly do it. Indeed, he'd probably blow everyone away
04:10with his amazing musical stylings, despite Deadpool's bad take.
04:15Deadpool and Wolverine are stuck in the Honda Odyssey of an attractive Deadpool alternate
04:19when Deadpool says,
04:20"...friends don't let friends leave the house looking like they fight crime for the L.A.
04:24Rams."
04:25It's a thoughtful statement. Wolverine is wearing a blue and yellow suit that looks
04:28a lot like what the Los Angeles Rams play in. A few tweaks to the L.A. Rams uniform,
04:32and it would be a perfect match. This was especially the case in the years when one
04:36of the NFL side's uniforms was all yellow with royal blue accents. But at least one
04:41version of the uniform is close enough today that Wolverine's suit will no doubt bring
04:45the team to mind.
04:46And actually, Wolverine really does look like a glorified football player when he's in full
04:50superhero mode. He even crouches toward the ground like football players do in a snap.
04:54Try to unsee it. We dare you.
04:57This line takes place in the void when Deadpool and Wolverine have their big brawl in the
05:00Honda. At one point when Wolverine gets a bit too close to Wade's, uh, bits, he declares,
05:06quote, "'I'm telling Blake.'" This is another fourth-wall-breaking reference to, of course,
05:10Ryan Reynolds' wife, Blake Lively. The man who plays Deadpool has been married to Lively
05:14since 2012 and has four children with her. Reynolds enjoys referencing his wife and her
05:19projects in his work. In Deadpool and Wolverine, in addition to this line, he also proclaims,
05:23there are 206 bones in the human body — 207 when I'm watching Gossip Girl. This, of course,
05:29is a reference to the show Lively is known for and the fact that Reynolds gets, uh, happy
05:33when he sees her in it.
05:35Also threatening Wolverine with tattling to the actress is all part of a day's work for
05:39Deadpool.
05:40Deadpool and Wolverine meet several heroes in the void, including Jennifer Garner's Elektra.
05:45Garner appeared in Daredevil in 2003 and in her self-titled movie in 2005. Given the way
05:50that people remember those movies — spoiler alert — they weren't exactly Elektra-fying.
05:55It's not surprising that Elektra ended up in the void. And there were apparently many
05:58more heroes there, too, including her version of Daredevil, played by Ben Affleck. That
06:03is, until Cassandra dispatched him. When Deadpool learns this, he has a rare moment
06:07of sincerity, telling Elektra, quote, "'Daredevil?' I'm sorry." To this, Elektra says,
06:12"'It's fine.'"
06:13Why?
06:14While that could be Elektra's stoic way of dealing with grief, it also has a double meaning.
06:20In real life, Garner was married to Affleck for 10 years, and they have three children
06:24together. But they split up in 2015 and finalized their divorce in 2018. Affleck got back together
06:30with former Flame Jennifer Lopez in 2021, and the pair are now married. So, yeah, the
06:35whole exchange is a cutesy little dig at her breakup with Ben.
06:39Gambit, played by Channing Tatum, is another hero who landed in the scrap heap of the void
06:43in Deadpool and Wolverine. But his movie never even got made. In fact, Tatum spent years
06:48trying to get a Gambit movie off the ground and went through multiple directors for it
06:51before Disney canceled it after taking over Fox. Though Tatum is open to returning to
06:55the character, it seems unlikely, and therefore Gambit and Tatum's place in the void makes
07:00perfect sense.
07:01So does Deadpool's quip when he asks, "'Who's your dialect coach?' Gambit, who is from New
07:05Orleans, speaks with a Cajun accent, an aspect of the character that Tatum would have embraced.
07:10"'These beignets need to be more than you did, mon ami.'"
07:13Tatum's extreme accent is barely decipherable. Deadpool breaks the fourth wall — his real
07:18superpower — to mock Channing Tatum's portrayal. What dialect coach would let him get away
07:22with that?
07:24Ali Snipes' Blade is another hero found in the void. When the group of heroes are traveling
07:28to confront Cassandra and her lackeys, Blade comments that there's only been one Blade.
07:33While this seems like a passing boast, it's actually a reference to the fact that Marvel
07:36has had trouble trying to get a new Blade movie off the ground. While Mahershala Ali
07:40has been cast as the half-vampire, Marvel has been working on the movie since 2019.
07:45Two directors have come and gone from the project, and it seems no closer to being filmed.
07:50So Blade may be correct — there may only be one Blade, at least in the movies. On TV,
07:55it's a different story, because despite what Blade says here, there's already been another
07:59Blade. In 2006, Sticky Fingers portrayed Blade in the TV show Blade the Series. Though the
08:04series only lasted for a single 13-episode season, it was created by David S. Goyer,
08:09the man who wrote all three of Wesley Snipes' Blade films, so it had some pedigree. Still,
08:14after all the turmoil with the new Blade film, they may end up scrapping the whole thing,
08:18making Snipes the only Blade on the big screen.
08:20You're not ready to roll with this.
08:22When Deadpool and Wolverine jump through the portal provided by Cassandra from the Void,
08:27they come out on the other end in the parking lot of the place where Deadpool used to work,
08:31destroying a perfectly nice minivan in the process. It turns out, Peter, played by Rob
08:35Delaney, just sold said minivan to a family of four. And while the parents are horrified,
08:40their two boys are thrilled to see the two superheroes. Then, Deadpool hits them with
08:44this quip about Wolverine — and more specifically, Hugh Jackman — they're going to make a
08:48film do this till he's 90.
08:49Wolverine has plenty of staying power in the comics, games, or cartoons. After all, someone
08:54can draw Wolverine forever. But Hugh Jackman doesn't boast Wolverine's regenerative healing
08:59powers in real life. In other words, he can't keep playing Wolverine in the movies forever.
09:03At some point, something has to give, although it doesn't seem to have happened yet. He said
09:07he was retiring from playing Wolverine after Logan in 2017, explaining his body can't take
09:12much more.
09:13But then his friend Ryan Reynolds called, and suddenly he was co-starring in Deadpool
09:16and Wolverine. And now that Marvel's got him, who knows when they'll let him go?
09:21When Deadpool pulls a bait-and-switch on Wolverine at the climax of the film, instead of treating
09:25the moment with the gravity it deserves, he does what he does best — joking.
09:29I'm Marvel-Jesus, or Spock. Hard to say. As noted earlier, Deadpool refers to himself
09:34as Marvel-Jesus throughout the film, and perhaps that's why he goes into the room where a deadly
09:38energy can kill him. After all, it was either going to be Deadpool or Wolverine, and though
09:43Wolverine volunteered, Deadpool decided he needed to do it. Not because he wanted to,
09:47but because people needed him to.
09:49I am Marvel-Jesus.
09:54The more interesting piece of the quote is his reference to Spock, the Star Trek character
09:58famously played by Leonard Nimoy. Deadpool is referencing the ending of Star Trek II,
10:02The Wrath of Khan, and he's doing it because Deadpool's doing the exact same thing Spock
10:06does in that movie — sacrificing himself to save everyone. In fact, Deadpool even does
10:11a Vulcan salute, just like Spock does in The Wrath of Khan, before he perishes to save
10:15the Enterprise. Despite Deadpool's pending death, at least he gets to favorably compare
10:19himself to an iconic character.