Is Deadpool now part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? And Kang?

They called the film Deadpool and Wolverinebut maybe the title should have been Deadpool & Wolverine & everyone elseconsidering how many cameos of characters and actors were in it (if you are reading this, it means you are following Deadpool and Wolverine News, so you probably already know this).

But among all the bloopers and the bloodshed and the cameos (and the bloopers about the cameos, the bloodshed in the bloopers and the cameos with bloodshed), Deadpool and Wolverine says something about networked cinema. In making a film about Deadpool trying to become part of the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse, whether intentionally or not, the people behind Deadpool and Wolverine made a film about Kang’s inherent flaws and the MCU’s multiversal ambitions.

[Ed. note: This piece contains really big spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine.]

D&W shares his update on our first hero in flashbacks. At some point before the film began, Wade Wilson was preoccupied with a need to prove that he was “important.” Perhaps this came from his girlfriend Vanessa (though she encourages him to get over that idea, so maybe not). Perhaps the blame lies with Cassandra Nova, who manipulates at least part of Wade’s flashback. It’s not entirely clear what a theme is!

Although Wade’s only motivation was Deadpool and Wolverine doesn’t have much to say about what “important” means to Wade. After our respective screenings, my colleagues compared notes; had we missed a line or misinterpreted something? As a long-time comic book reader and student of continuity, I felt I had a good handle on the answer, and why it’s so easily stated: Wade can’t explain why “important” is so important to him, because he’s the only character in the film who knows he’s in a film. Whatever, for better or worse Deadpool and Wolverine By “important” is meant “being part of the main, ongoing canon.”

Think about it: What does Wade do to become “important”? He tries to join the Avengers in the main Marvel Universe. When that doesn’t work out, he’s at a loss – until the TVA tells him about anchor creatures. Without its anchor, a timeline withers and ends up on the dung heap of time, a story that is no longer continued or retold. See, anchor creatures are just main characters, right? That’s a main character. The character for whom the story ends when their arc is over.

Deadpool is excited, as he assumes he’s the anchor being of his timeline. He’s important! But no. Wolverine is the anchor being, and the Wolverine from Wade’s timeline is dead, putting said timeline in jeopardy. This sets off the rest of the film’s plot: Wade searches for a new Wolverine through various comic book references and cameos, ultimately stranding them both in the temporal dung heap. There they meet a slew of characters who were banished after their respective universes disappeared – all dregs of 20th Century Fox’s Marvel franchises: the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Blade, and Daredevil films.

The point of this collection of adaptable toy misfits is the prospect of getting one more chance to do cool stuff for superhero movies before they get rotted by a giant smoke monster.

The story, for all its confusion, has clear metatextual parallels. We have a number of largely underrated characters (and actors) who want their moment in the MCU sun. And Deadpool and Wolverine is the crowning achievement of 20th Century Fox’s Marvel films, which are intended to offer just that. The Smoke Monster is merely the transfer of licenses for intellectual property.

In the end, Deadpool’s ultimate reward is to become the anchor being for his particular setting; the new main character who saves it from disintegration. He learns to find happiness in being important only to his close friends, the supporting characters of the Deadpool film series. His friends are his universe, in a heartwarming figurative sense, but also in a literal metatextual sense, because as the narrator and central character of the story, there is no “Deadpool film setting” other than the people he knows personally. He learns to find happiness and contentment without being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and only being “important” to his home timeline – that is, being “canon.”

It’s a beautiful story and a good lesson about appreciating your friends. It’s also a perfect example of why Marvel Cinematic Universe’s post-Final Trying to put everything on the multiverse hasn’t worked so far, and maybe never will: the MCU is too dependent on the promise that every part of it is “important.”

Ever since Nick Fury said the words “Avengers Initiative,” a connected canon has been a major attraction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Continuity isn’t the be-all and end-all of storytelling, but Marvel Studios spams the “this is important because it’s connected to The” button has produced sporadic results in recent years.

The true finale of WandaVisionThe work that completed the Scarlet Witch’s descent into the absolute supervillain role was Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. This film promised dire consequences for Doctor Strange’s meddling in dark magic and then blamed those consequences on his next Movie.

And then there is the real carousel of Kangs.

When you are educating your audience to care about a story because it is “important,” introducing the idea of ​​a multiverse is a very tricky business. The concepts of a parallel universe or alternate timeline are defined by the way in which they not connect, and how what happens in them not Impact on the main setting. As complicated as it may have been to have three Spider-Mans in a single film, Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home is very careful to ensure that all of these alternate heroes and villains ultimately serve the emotional development of Peter Parker from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and do not become major MCU forces themselves.

The fact that we understand Wade’s need to “matter,” whether it’s a fictional meaning like “achieving great things” or a metafictional one like “being part of the movie franchise that actually accomplishes something,” shows how intuitive this is for the viewer. We know that the Ryan Reynolds version of the character won’t be seen in movies anymore unless this Deadpool makes it into the MCU. We know that it’s part of the main continuity, Affairs.

So if Loki Season 1 introduced Kang the Conqueror, killed him, and promised that an even more fearsome Kang was on the way, that was pretty exciting. When Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania introduced a Kang the Conqueror from another timeline, killed him, and promised that an even more terrifying Kang was on the way, that was kind of confusing. When Loki Season 2 introduced a Kang the Conqueror from another timeline, killed him, and again promised that another Kang the Conqueror, who would pose an Avengers-level threat in his own team-up movie, was in another castle – this is The boy who shouted canon. The only thing that surprises me about Marvel’s pivot to Doctor Doom is that it took them so long. Marvel can’t make “connection to the MCU” the be-all and end-all and then focus on a character like Kang, who is defined by a million disconnected timelines.

Deadpool and Wolverine billed itself as the movie where Deadpool comes into the MCU. It ended up spending about 5 minutes of the runtime in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the rest making jokes about it. It ends the film happily in the closed 20th Century Fox X-Men set and with a behind-the-scenes montage homage.

That’s great for Wade. But what universe will the MCU heroes retreat to if the Marvel Multiverse continues to be lax about what’s important?