Deadpool &
Wolverine
IMDb Rating
290K+
IMDb Votes
78%
Rotten Tomatoes
$1.34B
Box Office
Synopsis & Review
After Logan's death and the disbandment of the X-Men, Wade Wilson has hung up the mask and is selling cars, trying to live a quiet, ordinary life — until the Time Variance Authority arrives to inform him that his entire timeline is being marked for "pruning" because its anchor being has died, and with him, the timeline's reason to exist. Determined to save his world and the people he loves, Wade strikes a deal with a TVA bureaucrat named Mr. Paradox, but quickly discovers the offer is a trap. His only way out is to track down a version of Wolverine from a parallel timeline — not the noble hero fans remember, but a battered, embittered variant who failed everyone he ever tried to protect, and who wants absolutely nothing to do with Wade's mission.
For a project that spent years mired in rights negotiations, behind-the-scenes turmoil, and a pandemic-interrupted production, Deadpool & Wolverine arrives as something close to a miracle of tone: it is simultaneously the most self-aware, fourth-wall-shattering film Marvel Studios has ever released and a surprisingly sincere eulogy for two decades of Fox's X-Men films. Shawn Levy, working from a script credited to five writers including Reynolds himself, keeps the jokes coming at a pace that rarely lets up, but the film's real spine is Hugh Jackman's performance — finally allowed, after 24 years and nine films, to let Logan curse, bleed, and rage in ways the PG-13 era never permitted. The action choreography, particularly an extended hallway brawl set to a needle-drop that has already become iconic, is some of the best executed in any superhero film of the decade. It became the highest-grossing R-rated film ever released and the biggest opening weekend in the character's history, but its real achievement is making two decades of often-maligned X-Men movies feel, retroactively, like they mattered.
Why Watch This Movie?
The Biggest R-Rated Opening of All Time
Deadpool & Wolverine shattered the opening-weekend record for any R-rated film, proving that Marvel's first hard-R entry could still dominate a summer box office typically reserved for PG-13 tentpoles.
Hugh Jackman's Most Unrestrained Wolverine Performance
After nearly a quarter-century playing the character across nine films, Jackman finally gets to unleash the version of Logan that comic readers always imagined — foul-mouthed, brutal, and emotionally raw in equal measure.
A Love Letter (and Eulogy) to Fox's X-Men Universe
The film is packed with cameos and callbacks that function as a genuine send-off for characters and actors who never got proper closure when 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise was absorbed into Disney.
Action Choreography That Earns Its R Rating
Director Shawn Levy and his stunt team treat the hard-R rating as a creative tool rather than a marketing gimmick — the practical, brutal fight choreography is some of the best in the genre this decade.
Cast & Crew
Director
Shawn Levy
Screenplay
Reynolds, Reese, Wernick, Wells & Levy
Studio
Marvel / 20th Century Studios
Wade Wilson / Deadpool
Ryan Reynolds
Logan / Wolverine
Hugh Jackman
Cassandra Nova
Emma Corrin
Mr. Paradox
Matthew Macfadyen
Original Score
Rob Simonsen
Official Trailer
© Marvel Studios / 20th Century Studios. Trailer embedded via YouTube.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to watch the X-Men movies or Loki before this one?
Some familiarity helps but isn't strictly required. The film assumes you understand basic multiverse concepts (most accessibly explained in Loki seasons 1 and 2, which the TVA plotline borrows directly from) and rewards familiarity with Fox's X-Men films through cameos and callbacks, but the core story of Wade and Logan's reluctant partnership is self-contained enough for newcomers.
Why is this Wolverine "from a different timeline" than the one in the X-Men films?
Hugh Jackman's Logan died at the end of 2017's Logan. To bring him back without contradicting that story, the film introduces him as a variant — an alternate-timeline version of the character pulled into the main story by the TVA — allowing the "real" Logan's death to remain canon while still letting Jackman return.
Is Deadpool & Wolverine connected to the main MCU going forward?
Loosely, yes. The film officially folds the Fox X-Men universe into the larger multiverse framework established by Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but it functions as a mostly self-contained story and doesn't require deep MCU knowledge to enjoy.
How many cameos are in the movie?
Without spoiling specifics, the film features a large number of surprise appearances from actors connected to Fox's previous X-Men and Marvel properties, several of whom hadn't played their characters on screen in over a decade. Much of the marketing deliberately avoided revealing who appears.
More Movies Like This
If you loved Deadpool & Wolverine, these films belong on your watchlist.