The Ending Of Deadpool & Wolverine Explained

This article contains spoilers for "Deadpool and Wolverine"

Deadpool, aka Wade Wilson, was first introduced in the 1990 issue of "New Mutants #98," co-created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld. However, the character of Deadpool gained mainstream popularity and prominence after his self-titled series got more comedic and meta, starting with "Deadpool #28" in 1997. Since then, he became less serious and much more of a comedic foil to other more serious heroes — such as the X-Men's resident grump, Wolverine — vastly exceeding the popularity of his initial villainous incarnation.

Later, star Ryan Reynolds got interested in the role after the comic book Deadpool himself compared his appearance to "Ryan Reynolds crossed with a shar-pei" in a 2004 issue. After a bumpy start adapting the character to the big screen with an ill-fated cameo in 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (where they sewed his iconic mouth shut!), Reynolds eventually starred in two commercially successful and critically acclaimed comics-accurate films.

While Deadpool had a tumultuous initial journey to the movies, it was just as tumultuous of a time getting into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with lots of fits and starts. However, Deadpool is back, bringing back the one (and currently only) live-action Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back for (possibly) one last ride in 2024's buddy superhero action flick, "Deadpool and Wolverine." But what does this mean for the Deadpool franchise going forward? Will the ending of "Deadpool and Wolverine" make or break the MCU, and affect the X-Men franchise as well? Find out below.

"Deadpool and Wolverine" begins with Deadpool literally (and figuratively) desecrating the legacy of 2017's "Logan," which was seen by many as the most fitting ending to not only Hugh Jackman's take on the iconic Wolverine character but to the 20^th Century Fox version of the "X-Men" cinematic universe in general (Fox was eventually acquired by Disney in 2019, bringing the "X-Men" characters into the MCU). Wade does this by digging up Logan's adamantium skeleton — in an ill-fated attempt to bring him back to life — and beating a bunch of TVA (Time Variance Authority) agents to gory death with it.

Wade is doing this because a rogue TVA agent, known only as Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), informs Deadpool that he will be destroying Deadpool's universe since Logan was its "anchor being," and his death means that Wade's universe is doomed to decay and perish. However, Mr. Paradox wants to speed up the process. Wade, of course, doesn't like that, so he escapes into the multiverse to find a Logan to replace the one from his universe and save it. 

Wade eventually finds a depressed Logan who has let down his own universe and brings him back to the TVA. There, Wade attempts to convince Mr. Paradox to save his timeline, due to him finding another Logan to be a new "anchor being." However, Mr. Paradox laughs this suggestion off, and Wade and the variant Logan — wearing his iconic yellow-and-blue suit for the first time in live-action — find themselves stuck in the Void last seen in the Disney+ series "Loki."

In The Void, Wade and Logan meet different variants of characters from other Marvel films prior to the MCU, like Chris Evans as Johnny Storm from the 2005 "Fantastic Four" film (who Deadpool thinks is Captain America at first). They unfortunately find out quickly that The Void is ruled by the vicious Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), Charles Xavier's powerful evil twin from a variant universe.

While Logan and Deadpool fight each other for most of the runtime, they eventually discover there's a resistance of other superhero variants — such as an X-23 (Dafne Keen), Blade (Wesley Snipes), Elektra (Jennifer Garner), and Gambit (Channing Tatum) — who they team up with to fight Cassandra in order to get back to Wade's universe and save it from Mr. Paradox. But Cassandra has her own plans, arriving in Wade's timeline herself — along with an army of Deadpool variants — so she can use Paradox's secret "time ripper" device to destroy every timeline except that of The Void.

In the end, Logan and Wade fight off Wade's variants and willingly offer up their lives to save the multiverse from destruction by disrupting the time ripper's energy source. Luckily, both survive the ordeal; Cassandra is destroyed, Paradox is arrested by the TVA, the other Marvel variants are returned to their timelines, and Logan decides to retire quietly in Wade's universe, which has also been saved.

On a purely metatextual level, the ending of "Deadpool and Wolverine" is about giving closure to the Marvel films that came before the "official" Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU launched in 2008 with the Robert Downey, Jr.-led "Iron Man," directed by Jon Favreau (who also played Iron Man/Tony Stark's bodyguard Happy Hogan, who makes a cameo appearance in "Deadpool and Wolverine"). However, "Iron Man" was far from the first Marvel theatrical film (that would surprisingly be the 1986 total flop, "Howard the Duck"), and certainly not the first Marvel film to be successful. 

Arguably, the official modern comic book boom started in 1998 with "Blade," starring Wesley Snipes, whose success gave skittish studio execs the confidence to invest in big-budget superhero movies that weren't just based on Superman and Batman, such as 2000's "X-Men" and 2002's "Spider-Man." When those films proved successful, it opened the floodgate to include 2003's "Daredevil," 2005's "Fantastic Four," as well as many sequels and spin-offs of those films prior to and during the MCU's ascension.

Throughout 2024's "Deadpool and Wolverine" there are many references to characters from those previous Marvel films, such as Johnny Storm from "Fantastic Four" (played by Chris Evans), but also the return of cast members from the original "X-Men" films (such as Aaron Stanford as Pyro), Elektra from "Daredevil" (played again by Jennifer Garner), and even Wesley Snipes returning as Blade ... all being given closure in one way or another.

The ending of "Deadpool and Wolverine" possibly solidifies Deadpool as part of the official MCU by acknowledging that he can travel to its "Sacred Timeline." The most cynical way to frame this is that the film exists simply as a convoluted (and expensive) way to allow the continuity of the critically and commercially successful "Deadpool" films to also co-exist in the official MCU continuity somehow. It's similar to what the "Star Trek" universe did in 2009 to get its franchise rebooted by utilizing time-travel/alternate universe shenanigans.

This is because, in the MCU, the "Sacred Timeline" — which, again, is referenced explicitly through a subtitle in the film itself — does allow for a number of disparate timelines to exist simultaneously. In fact, the Sacred Timeline consists of at least 63 branched realities, of which Wade Wilson's version of the 20^th Century Fox "X-Men" universe was one. And we're saying "Wade Wilson's version" purposely, because apparently The Avengers exist in the universe of Earth-616, which was never referenced (for obvious reasons) in the first two "Deadpool" films. He also returns to his home timeline, where the X-Men exist and are widely known (since Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead appear), so it stands to reason he is still separate from the main universe ... for now.

As mentioned earlier, Wolverine and Deadpool find themselves stuck in the Void, where forgotten variants of Marvel superheroes (and villains) are trapped in a Mad Max-esque post-apocalyptic hellscape run by Cassandra Nova. It is eventually revealed that there are resistance freedom fighters who are free of Nova's clutches and attempting to fight back, and may even know (as far as Wade and Logan can surmise) the only way out of the Void at all.

When Wade and Logan finally meet the resistance fighters late in the movie, one of them is Gambit from the X-Men, played by none other than Channing Tatum. Now, Channing Tatum has never played Gambit in any official live-action "X-Men" films. In fact, Gambit was famously (or infamously) portrayed in live-action by actor Taylor Kitsch in 2009's ill-fated "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," alongside Ryan Reynolds' proto-Wade Wilson.

However, the reason why Channing Tatum plays Gambit in "Deadpool and Wolverine" is because there was a long-in-development solo Gambit movie in the works, in which Tatum was supposed to star, that unfortunately never came to fruition ... despite getting close many times, including a version with director Gore Verbinski at the helm. So this cameo is sort of a "mea culpa" for those projects falling through. Despite his age and a Cajun accent that was ... "Minion"-esque (according to Deadpool), Channing acclimates to the role well.

One of the most surprising resistance fighters to show up within the Void is none other than Wesley Snipes as the vampire hunter Blade. This is especially surprising in light of Marvel's long-in-development "Blade" reboot, reportedly still starring Mahershala Ali, which was supposed to come out before "Deadpool and Wolverine," but will now (supposedly) be released in late 2025. There's even a scene where Snipes' Daywalker variant says "I'm the only Blade that will ever be," causing Deadpool to give a winking look to the camera as a reference to both the MCU reboot on the horizon as well as the trouble the reboot has had getting off the ground so far.

But more than that, Wesley Snipes and Ryan Reynolds actually worked together on 2004's "Blade: Trinity," the third — and so far final — film in the previous "Blade" trilogy, where Reynolds played the comic book character Hannibal King (whose origin and power set was heavily changed in the film adaptation). 

Furthermore, the set of "Blade: Trinity" was infamously tense (which was supposedly chronicled by stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt, who also co-starred in the film, though his account has been disputed by Snipes). So some dialogue between Wade and Blade is truly metatextual. For example, in "Deadpool and Wolverine," when Snipes' Blade tells Reynolds' Deadpool, "I don't like you," Deadpool responds morosely with "Sounds familiar..." in a reference to that tension-filled "Blade: Trinity" set.

In a recent Collider interview with stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, as well as director/co-writer Shawn Levy, one of the most interesting comments came from Reynolds himself, where he says that "Deadpool and Wolverine" was "really, genuinely meant to be a true one-off." This seemingly confirms that Deadpool is still confined to his own universe by the end of the movie. Reynolds' response also teased the possibility that this may be the last time Deadpool appears in the MCU, and that the film was a send-off not just for the 20^th Century Fox "X-Men" films, but for Wade as well (though, given the initial box office predictions, that seems highly unlikely).

Meanwhile, when Hugh Jackman was asked in the same Collider interview if he'd return to portray Logan again in live-action — since he had previously claimed he was hanging up the claws for good after 2017's acclaimed "Logan" — Jackman replied, "It literally does not matter how I answer this ... because I'm clearly a liar. But what's so great about my lie is I believed it. Fully." So in other words — never say never.

Finally, Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige told The Playlist that "now that we have characters from the 'X-Men' world ... every [movie] post 'Deadpool and Wolverine' will be the mutant era coming into the MCU."

After the Disney-Fox acquisition, it was tough for Kevin Feige to find a way to implement the foul-mouthed and hard-R "Deadpool" franchise into the relatively family-friendly MCU. Ryan Reynolds has even spoken about different versions of a potential "Deadpool 3" that were in the works over the years. He told Empire that this included "something that they got into together, but told from three completely different perspectives," and also that he eventually "went back to the drawing board, and ... wrote up about 18 different treatments. Some of them almost like a Sundance film, a budget of under $10 million." 

Karan Soni, who plays Wade's cabby sidekick and friend Dopinder in the "Deadpool" films, told ScreenRant that one of those ideas was "originally a road trip movie where Deadpool tries to save Christmas," which was to co-star Hugh Jackman as well.

Finally, director Shawn Levy revealed to Collider that, before Cassandra Nova was going to be the main villain, they had toyed with the demonic Mephisto in earlier drafts. With all that in mind, how would that have changed the ending? Quite drastically, we imagine. It's possible the "road trip" version about Deadpool and Wolverine saving Christmas would have had much lower stakes than the final film's universe-saving climax. And Mephisto would probably have been much less thematically cohesive than Nova since he doesn't have the X-Men connection to Logan that she has.

While "Deadpool and Wolverine" doesn't end the Multiverse Saga per se, it does give a lot of hints that the MCU's overuse of the multiverse as a plot device is coming to an end, especially with how much Wade breaks the fourth wall to bad-mouth the Marvel Cinematic Universe for it. This makes sense, especially since "Avengers: Secret Wars," based on the famed comics event, will be one of the next big Avengers team-up films. As one of the biggest multiverse stories in Marvel Comics history, it's been speculated by fans that "Avengers: Secret Wars" could culminate in a consolidated timeline for the MCU, much like DC's similar "Crisis on Infinite Earths," which was adapted (poorly) in the recent film "The Flash."

Deadpool's openly derisive metatextual comments about the MCU also give voice to a growing contingent of the fanbase who have been critical of the Marvel films post-"Avengers: Endgame," with many fans feeling the cinematic universe (including the Disney+ shows) have been directionless and sputtering in recent years. Could these comments from the Merc with a Mouth hint that the Multiverse Saga is coming to an end sooner than expected? Or are they breadcrumbs that Deadpool will be one of the main focal points — if not the main one — of "Avengers: Secret Wars"? Only time will tell.