Deadpool & Wolverine is a 2024 American superhero film based on Marvel Comics featuring the characters Deadpool and Wolverine. Produced by Marvel Studios, Maximum Effort, and 21 Laps Entertainment, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 34th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the sequel to Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018). The film was directed by Shawn Levy from a screenplay he wrote with Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Zeb Wells. Reynolds and Hugh Jackman respectively star as Wade Wilson / Deadpool and Logan / Wolverine, alongside Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Aaron Stanford, and Matthew Macfadyen. In the film, Deadpool learns that the Time Variance Authority plans to destroy his universe and works with a reluctant Wolverine from another universe to stop them.
Development on a third Deadpool film began at 20th Century Fox by November 2016, but was placed on hold after the studio was acquired by Disney in March 2019. Control of the character and Fox's X-Men film series was transferred to Marvel Studios, which began developing a new film with Reynolds. It integrates Deadpool with the MCU and retains the R rating of the previous Deadpool films, a first for the MCU. Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin joined in November 2020 as writers. Reese and Wernick returned from the previous films for rewrites by March 2022, when Levy was hired as director. They, along with Reynolds and Wells, had difficulty figuring out the film's story until Jackman decided to reprise his role as Wolverine from the X-Men films in August 2022. Several other actors from the X-Men films and other Marvel productions also returned as part of the film's multiverse story, which serves as a tribute to Fox's Marvel films. Filming began in May 2023 at Pinewood Studios in England, with additional filming in Norfolk, Los Angeles, and Bovingdon Studios. Production was suspended in July due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, but resumed in November and wrapped in January 2024. The title was revealed a month later. Rob Simonsen composed the original score, while numerous artists were compiled for the soundtrack.
Deadpool & Wolverine premiered on July 22, 2024, at the David H. Koch Theater in New York City, and was released across the United States on July 26 as part of Phase Five of the MCU. It has grossed $1.34 billion worldwide, becoming the 20th-highest-grossing film of all time, the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time and the second-highest-grossing film of 2024.
Plot
In 2018, after Wade Wilson uses Cable's time-travel device to prevent the death of his girlfriend Vanessa Carlysle,[a] he travels from his universe, Earth-10005,[b] to Earth-616 on the "Sacred Timeline",[c] hoping to join that reality's Avengers. However, he is rejected by Happy Hogan and returns to his universe. Six years later, Wade has broken up with Vanessa, retired from being the masked mercenary Deadpool, and works as a used-car salesman with his friend and former X-Force member Peter Wisdom.
During Wade's birthday party, the Time Variance Authority (TVA) captures him and takes him to Mr. Paradox, who explains that they are an organization outside of time that monitors the Sacred Timeline and wider multiverse, and offers Wade a future on Earth-616. Wade initially accepts, but when Paradox reveals that Wade's timeline is deteriorating as a result of the death of its stabilizing "anchor being", Logan,[d] and that he plans to use a "Time Ripper" device to accelerate this process, Wade steals his TemPad and uses it to travel to Logan's grave, hoping to resurrect him and save the timeline. When this fails, Wade travels the multiverse searching for a replacement alternate universe "variant" of Logan.
Wade returns to the TVA with a Logan variant but is told by Paradox that an anchor being cannot be replaced, and that this variant is considered "the worst Wolverine" in the multiverse. When Wade deduces that Paradox is acting without the knowledge of his superiors, Paradox sends Wade and Logan to the Void. Logan agrees to work with Wade when he claims that the TVA can change his timeline. Wade and Logan are captured alongside Johnny Storm and taken to Cassandra Nova, the powerful and sadistic twin sister of X-Men leader Charles Xavier. Cassandra, who made a deal with the TVA to oversee the Void, kills Johnny and leaves Wade and Logan to be consumed by Alioth, but the pair manages to escape.
Logan and Wade meet a Deadpool variant called "Nicepool" who directs them towards a resistance group that has been fighting Cassandra. On the way, Wade accidentally admits that he was lying about the TVA being able to fix Logan’s timeline, and the pair fight until both are left unconscious. They are found by the resistance group, consisting of Laura, Elektra, Blade, and Gambit. Wade proposes an alliance to fight Cassandra, and Laura convinces Logan, distraught over his reluctance that led to the death of his fellow X-Men, to join the cause. The resistance members distract Cassandra's henchmen while Wade and Logan block her powers by placing Juggernaut's helmet on her head. Cassandra is betrayed by her follower Pyro on behalf of Paradox, and almost dies until Logan convinces Wade to remove the helmet. Cassandra heals herself and opens a portal to Earth-10005, which Logan and Wade jump through.
Cassandra learns about Paradox's Time Ripper from Pyro, kills him, and follows Logan and Wade to Earth-10005. There, she reveals her plan to destroy all timelines, leaving only the Void. Cassandra summons an army of Deadpool variants, who kill Nicepool and battle Wade and Logan until Peter arrives and distracts them. Paradox tells Wade and Logan that while one of them could destroy the Time Ripper by disrupting its power flow, this would kill them, even with their healing powers. Wade and Logan destroy the Time Ripper together, killing Cassandra in the process, and are able to survive by sharing the burden. Paradox is arrested by the TVA's Hunter B-15, who congratulates Wade and Logan and says their actions have stopped Earth-10005 from deteriorating. Wade asks Hunter B-15 to save the resistance group from the Void and change the history of Logan's world. She explains that the latter is not possible because Logan's history is what led to him being a hero now, and allows Logan to stay in Wade's world. Wade invites Logan to meet his friends and, with encouragement from Logan, reconciles with Vanessa.
