Everything You Need To Remember To Watch Deadpool & Wolverine

One of the post-credits scenes for "Deadpool 2" sees Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) travel back in time to the events of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," the film that infamously sewed the Merc With a Mouth's, er, mouth shut in its climax. After shooting his younger self dead (and then shooting him several more times for good measure), the older Wade informs a visibly confused Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), "Look, eventually, you're going to hang up the claws, and it's gonna make a lot of people very sad. [...] But one day, your old pal Wade's gonna ask you to get back in the saddle again."

What Reynolds and co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wenick couldn't have known when they wrote that scene was that Jackman would not only return as Wolverine after retiring from the role in 2017, but he would also be the one to suggest the idea in the first place. This week's "Deadpool & Wolverine" sees the titular duo make the leap to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, further integrating Fox's "X-Men" characters after Disney's purchase of the studio. However, unlike its previous drip-drip-drip approach, the franchise is taking a massive leap forward here, bringing in all manner of familiar mutants as part of the film's multiverse-crossing storyline.

So, where does that leave all the poor folks who took "Deadpool & Wolverine" director Shawn Levy at his word about not having to do any homework for the film? The short answer: Levy's a liar, liar, pants on fire. (One could even say he's ... a "Big Fat Liar.") The longer, and more serious answer, is that he was partly telling the truth; this isn't like "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" or "The Marvels" where you had to know several MCU shows and movies inside and out just to understand what's going on — although you should familiarize yourself with at least a few previous titles.

No need to have those claws out: here's a spoiler-free guide to everything you need to recall for "Deadpool & Wolverine."

15 years after its release, Gavin Hood's 2009 film "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" is still considered the nadir of the Wolverine movies and, to some extent, the entirety of Fox's "X-Men" franchise. (Mind you, "X-Men: Apocalypse" and "Dark Phoenix" might like to have a word about that.) It did, however, mark the first time that Reynolds and Jackman shared the screen as Wade Wilson and Logan, loosely adapting some major "X-Men" comics while recounting the latter's backstory (including where he got the name "Logan" in the first place). "Origins," as discussed earlier, also notoriously ended with Wade being transformed into the non-verbal Weapon XI, leading to the "Deadpool 2" post-credits scene where Deadpool pumps his younger self full of lead. (More on Wade's time-travel hijinks to come.)

If the majority of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" has since faded from your memory or you never watched it to begin with, you're in luck! Most of it was wiped from Logan's memory at the end of the film as well, courtesy of an adamantium bullet to his noggin. That being the case, it's unlikely "Deadpool & Wolverine" will feature too many nods to this movie — you know, other than to take the piss out of it once again.

MCU connections aside, "Deadpool & Wolverine" primarily acts as a sequel to the first two films in the series. As such, we should definitely take a moment to bone up on what even happened in those movies.

Let's start with Tim Miller's "Deadpool." An unconventional origin story, the film reveals that Wade acquired both his super-healing and heavily-scarred visage under false pretenses as part of an experimental treatment for his cancer. As he racks up an impressive body count, Wade's irreverent quest for payback is juxtaposed with a raunchy yet surprisingly wholesome love story about him and his girlfriend Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin), a kindred spirit both in and out of the sheets. (Kids, ask your Uncle Feige about that one.) This is also where Wade befriends the X-Men Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), and his roommate Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), cementing the franchise's themes about found family.

David Leitch's "Deadpool 2," meanwhile, finds Wade and Vanessa living in bliss, only for tragedy to strike when Vanessa is shot dead by Wade's enemies. Upon failing to one-up Wolverine by offing himself (we'll unpack that in a moment), Wade ends up on a whirlwind adventure involving the time-traveling cyborg soldier Cable (Josh Brolin). Thwarting a potentially dark future, Wade ultimately saves the day through an act of self-sacrifice and love rather than violence. It's like if "Looper" was a superhero comedy full of bawdy humor and over-the-top bloody carnage played for laughs.

Along the way, Wade also forms a superhero team he dubs the X-Force, all of whom are killed in an over-the-top comedic fashion on their first mission, save for Zazie Beetz's luck-powered Domino. (This is a "Deadpool" film, after all; juvenility and subversion are the name of the game.) By the end, though, NTW and her girlfriend Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna) manage to repair Cable's time-travel machine, which Wade nabs to resurrect both Vanessa and X-Force's lovable token normie Peter (Rob Delaney).

Remember how James Mangold's elegiac, Western-influenced "Logan" brought the story of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine to a powerful, somber conclusion in 2017 ... and how Jackman later announced that he would reprise his role in "Deadpool & Wolverine," resulting in human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, and so forth? Now that the dust has settled and the internet has calmed down a little, it's been confirmed that the movie doesn't actually screw around with the story in "Logan." Instead, Jackman plays a variant of the cranky, sharp-clawed mutant and not the one who tragically died protecting his daughter Laura, aka X-23 (Dafne Keen), from nefarious forces. 

Be that as it may, let's just say that "Deadpool & Wolverine" acknowledges that, for many fans, bringing back Jackman at all is a sacrilegious act in the most Deadpool way you can imagine. Think "Deadpool 2" opening with Wade playing a music box modeled after Logan's death right before blowing himself to pieces, and you've got the general vibe. Also, if you're hoping to avoid knowing anything beyond that, well, maybe don't click this link to watch the final "Deadpool & Wolverine" trailer.

With that whole X-Force thing not working out for him, "Deadpool & Wolverine" has Wade instead setting his sights on becoming an Avenger. As such, it's worth briefly recapping what went down the last time we saw Earth's Mightiest Heroes together in the Russo Brothers' two-parter, "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Endgame." The first of those movies had the "Mad" Titan Thanos (Brolin again) executing his plan to amass the all-powerful Infinity Stones and restore balance to the universe by wiping out half of all life, despite the Avengers' best efforts to stop him. Shockingly, however, Thanos doesn't magically fix all the factors that actually contribute to systematic social inequality by committing mass murder.

After a five-year time jump, "Endgame" sees the remaining Avengers and their allies borrowing a page from Deadpool's book and traveling back in time to undo the damage inflicted by Thanos. Naturally, things work out better the second go-around. However, the Avengers themselves are heavily depleted by the time they defeat Thanos for good, with most of them either dead (R.I.P. Iron Man and Black Widow), retired (Captain America, Hawkeye), or headed off into outer space (Thor). That leaves a nice, wide opening for a certain trigger-happy mercenary to turn over a new leaf and try his hand at being a certifiable do-gooder for once. 

As for how Wade finds himself in that position when he exists in a separate corner of the greater Marvel multiverse, far removed from the primary MCU timeline? For that one, we'll need to pay a visit to the other side of the MCU.

"Loki" is one of the best MCU Disney+ series. It's also the key to how Deadpool ends up in the central MCU timeline, itself referred to as the Sacred Timeline by members of the Time Variance Authority on the show (the TVA for short). The TVA exists beyond the confines of time and is charged with upholding the sanctity of the Sacred Timeline and the order of the multiverse at large. That, in turn, means making sure there aren't variants of the same individual running amok where they're not supposed to be and having its agents "prune" those that are by sending them to the Void (a prison-esque wasteland that lies at the end of all time).

Things get a lot more complicated (and quickly) once the God of Mischief enters the fray, with Thor's trickster sibling causing a whole lot of multiversal mayhem and even macking on himself at one point. (No doubt, Wade would heartily approve.) Luckily, for our purposes here, you don't actually need to know about any of the show's more mind-bending twists. You're also good to ignore all the Kang stuff that was originally intended to set up the future of the MCU, Deadpool's included, before the whole Jonathan Majors snafu led to Marvel revamping its better-laid plans.

All you really need to know is that when TVA agents show up at Wade's front door, they're probably not looking to chat over a piece of Key Lime Pie. You can find out what happens from there by checking out "Deadpool & Wolverine" when it arrives in theaters on July 26, 2024.