By now any self-respecting Marvel fan has squealed over the 2^nd full-length Deadpool & Wolverine trailer at least once. The highly anticipated team-up has been at the top of fans’ must-see list since the first abysmal edition of the Merc with a Mouth appeared in X-Men Origins all the way back in 2009.  

So far the trailer hasn’t disappointed. Packed with one-liners and cheeky nods, it takes multiple watches to see all of the glorious easter eggs director Shawn Levy has added to every exceptional second. Which one is the best? The kind of comic book deep cut only the most dedicated Marvel fans will recognize.

Rob Liefeld: Lover of muscles, hater of feet

There are few comic book artists as prominent as Stan Lee, but Rob Liefeld has secured his own place in the Marvel Hall of Fame. Since he burst onto the scene in the late 80s, he’s done everything from rescuing the floundering New Mutants to masterminding Deadpool and his favorite frenemy, Cable. He even co-founded Image Comics to help comic artist maintain control of their darling creations.

Despite his many award-winning comics and his tenure as an artist – he got his start at Marvel before he had even reached 20 – Liefeld’s skills with a pen are contentious in the comic book world. Fans and critics alike can’t seem to agree on whether or not he’s actually good at drawing. And most arguments, as well as this deep-cut Marvel joke, hinge on his Achilles heel – or maybe we should call it an Achilles foot.

“Liefeld’s Just Feet,” a destroyed store that only appears briefly on screen, is a nod to Liefeld’s controversial problem in drawing, well, feet. Since the late 80s, Liefeld has been singularly untalented when it comes to drawing feet. For years, he’s found clever ways to hide the pesky appendage behind supporting characters, rocks, fire hydrants, weird angles, the edge of the frame, and basically any other appropriately (and inappropriately) placed objects he can fit in a scene.

Whenever a tootsie does happen to make it into a frame, it tends to have more than a few issues. His foot sizes are hilariously inconsistent with character size, the left feet turn right, and women appear to walk through life like a ballerina with a perfect point. It’s almost a signature at this point, and clearly, Liefeld is already in on the joke.

He took to Twitter to laugh about the jab and fully embraced it by cropping out Wolverine and Deadpool’s tosie-wosies for the post. After decades of being lambasted for his peculiar art style, Liefeld is just as impervious to the criticisms as Wolvie and Wade are to mortal wounds. After all, what damage can a playful dig about feet do when industry veterans like Barry Windsor-Smith – the man behind Red Sonia and Conan – have absolutely dragged him? Windsor-Smith once said of Liefeld’s art:

“He has nothing to offer. He cannot draw. He can’t write. He is a young boy almost, I would expect, whose culture is bubble gum wrappers, Saturday morning cartoons, Marvel Comics; that’s his culture.”

It must sting to have someone like Windsor-Smith bash your hard work, but Liefeld is certainly laughing all the way to the bank. At the end of the day, the Deadpool movies have a massive fan following and sit comfortably in the 80% range on Rotten Tomatoes, while 2011’s Conan the Barbarian bottoms out with a measly 25.

Remember the days when a single post from an Avenger could break the internet? Well, Chris Pratt just took us on a nostalgia-fueled trip down MCU memory lane with his latest “illegal” behind-the-scenes video.

From the looks of it, the BTS clip is from the final battle scene in Avengers: Endgame. Judging from Chris Evans’ fake shock at noticing Pratt making the video and the fact that the studio kept the film’s production under tight wraps to protect it from those sniffing around for leaks, it is easy to deduce why it used to be “illegal.”

The video is a who’s who of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We’ve got Dave Bautista (Drax), Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda), Chris Hemsworth (who seems to be battling an invisible swarm of flies), and even a rare sighting of Chris Evans (Captain America) channeling his inner SpongeBob SquarePants. Meanwhile, Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) appears deep in thought, script in hand, while Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther), and other casts make brief but impactful appearances. The presence of Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark), seemingly bored and chewing on something, adds a touch of humor to the scene.

But amidst the laughter and camaraderie, there’s a sense of bittersweetness that permeates the comments section. 

Fans have spotted Chadwick Boseman, forever our Black Panther, trying to hide his face from the camera. It strikes a chord, knowing now what we didn’t know then – that Boseman was silently battling cancer even as he suited up to save the universe.

Furthermore, if Pratt’s video is a reminder of Marvel’s glory days, it’s also a stark contrast to the company’s current state which is a mess of mediocre movies and Disney Plus shows. Fans are mourning the glory days of the MCU when every film was a must-see event and the Avengers were still assembling. 

One user laments:

“When Marvel was actually worth a damn.”

While another adds:

It’s no secret that the MCU has been struggling to recapture the magic of its early phases, with a string of lackluster releases and a growing sense of superhero fatigue among audiences. Sure, there have been bright spots – Pratt’s own Guardians of the Galaxy films continue to be a blast, and Spider-Man: No Way Home proved that the MCU still has some tricks up its sleeve.

Tom Hiddleston’s performance in Loki TV series as the God of Stories was an interesting revelation, and the show’s exploration of free will and determinism was surprisingly thoughtful for a series about a guy with magic horns. Now we have Deadpool & Wolverine hanging tight to the expectation that it will revive the currently comatose MCU with the aid of Wade Wilson’s proper Marvel initiation and Wolverine’s return.

But for every hit, there seems to be a massive miss (we’re looking at you, Eternals). When your big climactic battle scene involves a bunch of CGI monsters that look like they escaped from a PlayStation 2 game, you know you’ve got problems.

Perhaps the most telling moment in the video comes from Sean Gunn’s Rocket stand-in, who quips, “I’m pretty sure I’m the most famous person here.” It’s a joke, of course, but it also says a lot about the star power the franchise is steadily losing. These were the biggest names in Hollywood, all gathered together for a common purpose. And now? Well, let’s just say the fandom would trade their souls to erase Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and M.O.D.O.K.’s minion buttocks from existence.

The MCU has become so focused on expanding its universe that it’s forgotten what made it special in the first place– the characters, the heart, and the well-written plots that left us wanting more.

That’s what makes Pratt’s video so special. It reminds us of a time when the MCU was more than just a franchise — it was a family. A dysfunctional, quippy, occasionally problematic family, sure, but a family nonetheless. And in a world where every new release feels like a calculated attempt to set up the next big thing, it’s refreshing to see these actors just being themselves.

So thank you, Chris Pratt, for this blast from the past. Maybe this video will be the wake-up call that Kevin Feige and co. need to get back to basics and remember what made us fall in love with these characters in the first place.

Picture this: it’s the evening of April 26, 2019, and even the most remote theaters across North America are packed to the brim with Marvel devotees of all prestige. You and your momentary brethren have taken breath after shaky breath as the current situation (namely, Thanos’ attack on the Avengers compound) seems to escalate in favor of the Mad Titan with every passing moment. Then, the staticky voice of Sam Wilson reverberates around the theater, and indeed, the world; “on your left.”

It’s now every patron’s heartbeat that’s escalating as the Guardians of the Galaxy, the warriors of Wakanda, and just about every Infinity Saga mainstay leaps into the fray behind Captain America. With everyone—not least of whom Sam—now back at his side, all it took was one, herculean whisper of “Avengers, Assemble” to fan the flames sparked by Sam into one of the most sensational blazes of a cinematic battlefield the world has ever seen.

And now, five years after the theatrical release of Avengers: Endgame, “on your left” has cemented itself as one of the most kinetically definitive quotes in the history of the MCU, and it’s not at all difficult to see why.

“On your left” belongs to the MCU

It is, of course, easy to mark “Avengers, Assemble” as the major tentpole of a soundbyte prior to that final confrontation with Thanos (and by golly, did Chris Evans ever sell the moment to perfection). The thing is, though, Captain America has been rhyming off that call to action since before the majority of the MCU faithful had been conceived (the Avengers first appeared in comics in the fall of 1963). In no way does this diminish the quality of the line, but the weight of the moment effectively wrote itself, given the historic, pre-MCU reputation of the declaration.

“On your left” didn’t have that same foundation; the quote was a beast of Marvel Studios’ own making, and it has no one but itself to thank for nailing this callback so succinctly, subtly, and evocatively. “On your left” was, of course, the first words that Sam and Steve ever shared with one another on-screen after encountering one another on a public running track in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. While they were both using the track to exercise, the profoundly-roided Steve lapped Sam several times over, marking each instance by calling out “on your left” whenever he was about to pass Sam; a friendly jest that was just the tip of the iceberg of a much deeper trust between the two men.

With friends like Sam…

While no one can quite replace Bucky in Steve’s heart, the friendship he shares with Sam is of equal—if not greater—importance to Steve’s character arc, and subsequently the wider themes that the Avengers encapsulate as a team. When the world quite literally turned against Steve during the events of The Winter Soldier, Sam was a crucial lifeline for him to turn to, later aiding Steve, Natasha, and Nick Fury against a then-brainwashed Bucky and a largely compromised S.H.I.E.L.D. agency.

From then on, Sam remained one of Steve’s most readily steadfast allies, sticking with him through Ultron, the Avengers’ in-fighting, right up until the last breath he would breathe for five years in Infinity War. And while everyone needs a great friend, Steve—the perennial man out of time who left everything he knew back in the 40s and therefore certainly dealt with a unique breed of loneliness—was perhaps in need of someone like Sam more than anyone.

How appropriate, then, that it’s Sam who’s the first to greet Steve when he and the rest of Earth’s newly-revived champions begin to portal themselves to ground zero of Thanos’ attack, the fire in each of their eyes screaming that they’re all but ready to stand behind Steve’s leadership once more, united together—bonds of all shapes and intensities between them—against the most impossible odds yet. And at the heart of this maze of allies sat Sam, whose bond with Steve knew very few equals; a bond that began with “on your left.”

If Marvel Studios is smart, they’ll have worked overtime to ensure that “on your left” didn’t make its way into the script of Captain America: Brave New World, where Sam is set to carry the legacy of the star-spangled shield in the biggest way yet. It’s one thing to wink at the audience with a callback, but it’s quite another to make that callback mean something so deeply important to the characters as well; that was the homegrown strength of “on your left,” and was but one piece of the masterfully-crafted conclusion that Avengers: Endgame was to the undisputed golden era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It’s a good thing that Marvel has Deadpool & Wolverine, perhaps its most hyped release since 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, to get fans distracted, because behind the scenes there’s a lot of major restructuring happening when it comes to future plans for the MCU.

Deadpool 3 will no doubt make a killing at the box office this summer, but the last Marvel movie to release was The Marvels, which infamously went down as the worst-performing MCU film of them all. And it’s just possible that its failure was so embarrassing it immediately killed plans for a spinoff.

Monica Rambeau series was reportedly cancelled in the wake of The Marvels bombing

The Marvels‘ post-credits scene was perhaps the most memorable thing about it, as it brought back Kelsey Grammer as Beast. It was also interesting that it was Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau who ended up in the X-Men’s universe not Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel. According to new rumors, that’s because this was supposed to lead into a Photon series set for Disney Plus… However, this is 100% canned now due to the film falling flat. We’ve been assured that Monica’s story will now continue elsewhere, although it’s anyone’s guess where that could be.

Scarlett Johansson’s first MCU project since Black Widow could be a Disney Plus show

Don’t forget, while Marvel no doubt scrambles to tempt Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans into returning to the fold for Avengers: Secret Wars, Scarlett Johansson is already back in bed with the MCU for an upcoming project. The only thing is she’ll be serving as a producer rather than appearing on screen. For the longest time we’ve had literally zero information about the form of this mystery project, but the latest intel indicates that it will be a Disney Plus series. Given Johansson’s name behind it, presumably this show will be set in the Black Widow universe. Maybe it could be some kind of follow-up to Thunderbolts, which features Yelena, Red Guardian, and Taskmaster.

Mahershala Ali needs to get his ice skates on as Wesley Snipes’ Blade could be coming soon

Here’s your periodic reminder that Mahershala Ali was announced to be playing Blade in summer 2019… and we still haven’t seen him on screen?! Currently the Blade reboot is scheduled for November 2025 but it’s all but confirmed it’ll get pushed into 2026. Ali might want to hurry up and show his face, though, otherwise he might just be beaten to the punch by Wesley Snipes, who — rumor has it — is in talks to reprise his iconic ’90s role somewhere in the Multiverse Saga. For context, this is like if Tom Holland was cast as Spider-Man in 2016… and then never showed up before Tobey Maguire came back in 2021. What is going on, Kevin?!

Deadpool & Wolverine may be the only two heroes with their names in the title, but the upcoming third movie outing for the Merc with the Mouth is expected to be a-flush with fan-favorites from both the X-Men and the MCU making mind-blowing cameos.

The trailers so far have already given away that a litany of Fox legacy stars will put in an appearance, which has left fans thinking “Well, if they’re showing us these guys then who have they still got up their sleeves?” Some Avengers cameos wouldn’t go amiss, for one, and the door is certainly opening for a Captain Marvel role, seeing how The Marvels ended with an X-Men tie-in.

Given how tough and no-nonsense Carol Danvers tends to be, you’d expect her not to be a huge fan of a walking gag machine like Wade Wilson. Yet the duo’s unlikely comic book history tells us that sparks might just fly across the multiverse if Brie Larson actually did pop up in Deadpool 3…

Wade Wilson and Carol Danvers’ comic book romance, explained

While Wade and Carol have never had a full-on relationship storyline in the source material, there have been two very notable times when they were romantically connected. Basically, it’s all or nothing with these two.

In 2008’s Deadpool #17, Deadpool and Carol Danvers — back when she was still going by Ms. Marvel — go on a bender together in Vegas… and almost get married! In fact, they would’ve gone through with it too, if it wasn’t for Captain America crashing the ceremony to reveal that Carol’s uncharacteristic behavior was due to her being under the influence of a mind-controlling alien.

While that inebriated, alien-influenced tryst didn’t go anywhere, things turned out differently in 2020’s Deadpool: The End. In this special comic which imagined various future timelines for DP, one of Wade’s dreams predicting his future sees Wade having settled down, got his life together, and become a member of the Avengers. And it’s all thanks to his superhero girlfriend who is initially kept in shadow. In the comics’ final page, we see that it’s none other than Captain Marvel herself. Somehow this isn’t the least likely future depicted in this comic, with that honor going to the one where Deadpool and Wolverine have a son together.

Obviously, Movie Wade is very much committed to Vanessa and fans still want Carol to get with Valkyrie at some point, but maybe we should expect a brief flirtation, at the very least, should Captain Marvel and Deadpool ever cross paths, either in D&W or Avengers: Secret Wars.

At this point, it’s starting to feel like the MCU belongs to the X-Men, and everyone else is just living in it. X-Men ’97 is wowing viewers on Disney Plus, Deadpool & Wolverine is set to be the biggest movie of the summer, and you can bet there are numerous mutant-led projects in the works at Marvel after these too… But could a legendary Avengers vs. X-Men movie be among them?

Calm down, there’s nothing official on this front just yet, but with both Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman’s Logan heading to the mainstream Marvel universe very soon ⏤ and The Marvels teasing that the same is true of characters such as Beast ⏤ a clash with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes does feel almost *Thanos voice* inevitable.

The question is, though, would such a project help beckon in a bright future, or would it simply set the franchise back a decade?

What is Avengers vs. X-Men?

Avengers vs. X-Men — also known as AvX — was the biggest Marvel Comics event of 2012. Doing exactly what it says on the tin, it pitted the assembled Avengers against the extended X-Men team for the very first time in Marvel history. The story remains one of the most controversial events in Marvel history, too, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Set in the aftermath of the House of M event, in which Scarlet Witch decimated the mutant population, AvX revolves around the character of Hope Summers, the adoptive daughter of Cable who was the first mutant to be born after M-Day. Hailed as the “Mutant Messiah” and the destined next host of the Phoenix Force, she became a powerful savior figure for the beleaguered mutants.

Unfortunately, the threat of her becoming the apocalyptic Phoenix spooked the Avengers, who requested that the X-Men hand Hope over so they could monitor her and protect the world. Cue lots and lots and lots of fighting.

Could an Avengers vs. X-Men movie actually happen?

Another day, another new rumored Marvel Studios movie. This time, chatter is gathering around a potential Avengers vs. X-Men film, after teasing posts for The Cosmic Circus’ Alex P. hinted that it is an “inevitability.” This has proven enough to get some people carried away, but it might be best to put on our skeptical hats for the moment — they’re like Magneto’s helmet, but they protect your brain from being too gullible. That said, this isn’t exactly an idea that’s come out of nowhere.

For a long while now, it’s been discussed that the next saga to come after the Multiverse Saga would be the Mutant Saga. Some kind of Avengers event is always at the heart of each saga, so theoretically Avengers 7 — following Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars — could take the form of an AvX movie to cap off the mutants’ ascension in the MCU. On paper it seems like a smart move, combining those two iconic brands for maximum box office bucks. But isn’t the idea a little too… 2016?

Should an Avengers vs. X-Men movie happen?

Let’s forget whether AvX could happen for a moment, though, and ask should it happen? As alluded to above, the original comic split opinion down the middle. Much like Civil War, Civil War II, and any comics event that forces your heroes to fight each other, many felt the plot was contrived and only resulted in all the characters coming across as misguided, dumb, or villainous in some shape or form. It would be all too easy for a movie version to fall into that trap as well.

In fact, we’ve already seen this argument play out in the MCU, too, regarding Captain America: Civil War. And that’s the real sticking point: hasn’t the superhero genre outgrown its obsession with “versus” movies? Briefly, they were all the rage back in 2016, when Civil War did battle against Batman v Superman, but the fad passed as quickly as it rose up. Maybe because audiences, and producers, realized the fatal flaw that fans knew all along: if you make your heroes fight, they’re not going to come across as heroes anymore.

That would be a poor way to treat the then-venerable Avengers brand and it certainly wouldn’t endear the MCU’s rebooted X-Men to viewers. Honestly, for those who are getting goosebumps at the thought of Captain Marvel fighting Cyclops, the best way to do it would probably be to include a brief battle scene in Secret Wars rather than make it a whole movie. It’s been a hard lesson for Marvel to learn, but sometimes it’s OK to keep your toys on separate shelves.

The latest trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine revealed exciting plot details and surprising cameos, teasing its fourth-wall-breaking extravaganza. Among the characters returning for the third Deadpool movie is Azazel, a teleporting mutant.

Created by Chuck Austen and Sean Phillips, Azazel made his comic book debut in 2003. Despite being a relatively new character, the supervillain became quite popular thanks to his impressive powers, which include teleportation, shapeshifting, and even spellcasting. Until 2023, Azazel was also believed to be the father of Nightcrawler, a prominent member of the X-Men who’s the son of the famous member of the Brotherhood of Mutants, Mystique.

Outside comic books, Azazel was one of the mutants used by Fox to build their X-Men cinematic universe. Now that Disney absorbed Fox, the mutants are jumping into the MCU. It’s a slow process, but the trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine already spoiled Azazel as one of the characters crossing the multiverse barrier that separates big studios and franchises.

Azazel was part of X-Men: First Class

Azazel first appeared in X-Men: First Class, one of the most successful movies in the Fox X-Men franchise. Played by Jason Flemyng, this version of the villain worked for the Hellfire Club, a terrorist organization willing to destroy all humans and assure mutants would rule the planet. In the Fox continuity, the Hellfire Club was even behind the Cuban Missile Crisis, trying to kick off a nuclear war that would wipe out humanity.

Contrary to his comic book counterpart, the film version of Azazel only had teleportation powers. In addition, while in the comic books, Azazel is considered a lover to Mystique, the movie changed their relationship; in X-Men: First Class, it is implied that Azazel is related to her, a fact that writer Simon Kinberg confirmed. So, with the MCU refurbishing Fox’s characters and plotlines, we might see Mystique and Azazel forming a father-daughter relationship further down the line.

At the end of X-Men: First Class, Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) take the Hellfire Club down. Unfortunately, Magneto betrays the X-Men and forges his team, the Brotherhood of Mutants. Azazel is one of the Mutants who swear allegiance to Magneto. That’s the last we’ve seen of Azazel in Fox’s X-Men universe. However, a file on the character emerges in X-Men: Days of Future Past, revealing he has been captured, experimented on, and killed by Dr. Bolivar Trask, a major X-Men villain dedicated to destroying all Mutants.

How is Azazel returning for Deadpool & Wolverine?

Given Azazel’s grim fate in Fox’s X-Men franchise, it’s surprising to learn that the villain will return for Deadpool & Wolverine. The Azazel variant we see in the trailer is that played by Flemyng, indicating the upcoming MCU movie is connected to X-Men: First Class. That is not exactly shocking, as Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool was also part of Fox’s cinematic universe.

While Marvel Studios will keep some surprises for the movie theater, we already know a lot about the plot of Deadpool & Wolverine and how it will tie the Fox franchise with the MCU. For starters, in the trailer, Deadpool fights agents of the TVA, the interdimensional entity responsible for watching over the timeline. Loki introduced the TVA into the MCU, and their presence in Deadpool & Wolverine confirms that Marvel Studios is using different timelines as an excuse to bring all Marvel projects under the same banner.

To give you a concrete example of how things should unfold with Azazel and other mutants, Spider-Man: No Way Home already brought multiple iterations of Peter Parker into the MCU, explaining how the multiverse is the ultimate excuse Disney executives need to profit from nostalgia. Deadpool & Wolverine will reuse this strategy by bringing Hugh Jackman back as the clawed Mutant, a part he literally buried in 2017’s Logan.

As the trailer teases, Deadpool & Wolverine will partly take place in the Void, the end of times where all variants go after being pruned by the TVA. There, the titular heroes will face Emma Corrin’s terrifying Cassandra Nova. The Azazel variant in the trailer seems to be working for Cassandra, together with mutants such as Toad and Lady Deathstrike. So, while we can’t say when this Azazel variant was plucked from the timeline and sent into the Void, he will likely be an antagonist to Deadpool and Wolverine during the multiversal journey.

Deadpool & Wolverine comes to theaters on July 26, 2024.

Deadpool breaks all the rules; when the character and the franchise debuted to staggering box numbers office in 2016, fans were delighted to be given a superhero who didn’t take himself or his enemies seriously, and the success of the first two films helped to rejuvenate an otherwise tepid X-Men series for 20th Century Fox. A lot has changed since the Merc with a mouth was last seen on the big screen, however. The studio was acquired by Disney, and the film Deadpool & Wolverine went from being an antidote to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to being owned by the same company as the MCU.

Deadpool 3, aka Deadpool & Wolverine, is scheduled for release on July 24, 2024. As one can ascertain from the title and marketing campaign, the appeal of the film will come from seeing Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) team up with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and tackle the popular trend of multiverse storytelling. It’s bound to be a lot of fun, but its exact placement within the X-Men and Marvel universe, respectively, is somewhat unclear.

Is it both? Is it neither? Let’s discuss.

Deadpool 3 will continue the X-Men timeline

The X-Men timeline is an absolute mess. The continuity problems within the Fox franchise has become a running joke at this point, with no attention paid to character ages or the repetition of famous story arcs (Dark Phoenix, anybody?). Deadpool & Wolverine will technically be set within the X-Men timeline, but not in a way that easily slots into the films we’ve already seen. Instead, the threequel will introduce a Wolverine from a slightly different timeline in which something terrible happened (well, more terrible than usual).

The trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine establishes that this particular Wolverine variant “went to sh*t” after he “let his entire world,” though it’s careful not to reveal what he did. This was done for a couple different reasons. Firstly, it allows Hugh Jackman to stretch his acting muscles and bring something new to the character after two and a half decades of playing him. Secondly, and most importantly to fans, it preserves the fate of Wolverine in Logan. The 2017 film is considered the high water mark of the X-Men franchise, and boasts one of Jackman’s finest performances, so it was paramount that Deadpool & Wolverine not undo the impact it had.

Deadpool & Wolverine will also tie in Deadpool the most with the X-Men timeline of any of his previous films. The mutant team were mainly used as gags or surprise cameos in the first two installments, so it’ll be fun to see them become more intermingled in this new story.

Deadpool 3 will ALSO be set in the MCU

This is where things are going to get tricky. Deadpool & Wolverine is going to attempt to tell a cohesive and satisfying story about the Merc with a mouth while taking place within the X-Men AND MCU timelines. The film is being utilized as a way to bridge the gap between the franchises, and enable characters and actors from the X-Men films to bleed over into the MCU for crossovers in the future.

Marvel President Kevin Feige talked about the essential role that Deadpool & Wolverine will play in the future of the MCU during a recent interview with Collider. He not only boasted about the film’s quality, but confirmed that it will be taking place in the same timeline and universe as the MCU’s core stories:

It’s exciting for it to have begun. Again, a very different type of character in the MCU, and Ryan is a force of nature, which is just awesome to see him bring that character to life.

Deadpool & Wolverine will be dropped into the MCU at an interesting time (no pun intended). The franchise has spent the last few years navigating the multiverse, so the upcoming film could either simplify or vastly complicate the order of events as we know it. Based on the track record of both Deadpool and the MCU we get the impression it’ll be fun either way.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97 episode 7.

X-Men ’97 has already featured a number of the mutant team’s most fearsome foes in just a handful of episodes — Sentinels, Mister Sinister, Mojo… There was even a hilarious Apocalypse namedrop. However, it wasn’t until episode 7, “Bright Eyes,” that the show’s real big bad emerged out of the shadows. And they are voiced by a major guest star.

In the run-up to the show’s release, the makers confirmed that The Gentlemen‘s Theo James had a secret role on X-Men ’97 but wouldn’t be budged on who his character was, other than that they were sure they would become a “fan favorite.” This suggested James might be playing a new hero of some kind, but now we know that James is really this season’s main villain. And he seems more likely to kill off some fan favorites than to become one.

But who is X-Men ’97‘s dangerous and powerful new villain, Bastion?

Who is Bastion in X-Men comics and how does he fit into X-Men ’97?

In “Bright Eyes,” we learned that the true mastermind behind the massacre on Genosha was not Mister Sinister, but someone so scary that even Nathaniel Essex is playing second fiddle to them. As well as having technology that’s “lightyears” ahead of current Earth levels at his disposal, this villain is revealed to have faked Magneto’s death and now has him helpless and incarcerated. Mister Sinister and Magneto under his thumb? This guy means business.

The villain in question’s name is Bastion, and in the comics they are — simply put — a human/Sentinel hybrid. If you want the long version, here goes: Once upon a time, Master Mold merged with Nimrod, a super-powerful Sentinel from a dystopian future, and the only way for the X-Men to defeat this mega-Sentinel threat was to cast it into the Siege Perilous, a kind of mystical interdimensional gateway that grants those who go through it new life. So when the Nimrod-ified Master Mold went through it was reborn as a human, named Sebastion Gilberti.

Gilberti’s hatred of mutants lived on through his metamorphosis, however, and he ended up gaining significant military power as the leader of the Operation: Zero Tolerance strikeforce — the mysterious OZT organization introduced in “Bright Eyes.” What’s more, he created Prime Sentinels, humans upgraded with nanotech — which we are introduced to through the Trask-Sentinel in this same episode.

With his political might and cybernetic upgrades, Bastion represents a formidable threat to mutantkind on a personal and sociological level, so it’s no surprise that he’s the final boss of X-Men ’97 season 1. And with a big name like James in the role, we can’t rule out Bastion hopping into live-action sometime either.

It’s officially Deadpool & Wolverine season. Not only did Marvel Studios drop a new trailer for the upcoming film, but Funko is joining in on the fun with a fresh-out-the-over collection of Pop!s.

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s long-anticipated team-up will undeniably be one of the events of the year. The overwhelmingly positive reception to the trailer should have Marvel feeling cautiously excited after a less-than-ideal 2023 marked by box-office disappointment and cast-related controversy.

Deadpool & Wolverine will be the two mutants’ first outing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe following their fan-favorite runs in 20th Century Fox‘s X-Men universe. The official synopsis teases a run-in between Wade Wilson and the Time Variance Authority (which we all got acquainted with during the two seasons of Disney Plus’ Loki). Marvel’s official Japanese website also apparently revealed that whatever Deadpool and Wolverine’s mission is, it could “change the history of the MCU.”

As always, Funko is expected to offer a selection of figures inspired by the characters in the film, but the first to be announced was, of course, the title duo.

Where to buy the Deadpool & Wolverine Pop!s

The most popular Funko Pop! retailers like Amazon and the Funko website already have listings for the two new Wolverine and Deadpool collectibles, however, there’s no available option to buy or pre-order at this point. The official Funko store lists both figures for $12 with a banner saying “Coming Soon.” You can find Wolverine here and Deadpool here.

The Entertainment Earth website does allow visitors to pre-order the two Funko Pop!s for $11.99, and teases that they will become available only nearer the date of the film’s release in July.

In this special edition, Deadpool is sporting an updated suit and two swords, while his best frenemy is featured in all his full-clawed glory wearing the comic-accurate and fan-favorite yellow and blue suit, adorned with his trademark mask and white eyes.

Deadpool & Wolverine is out in theaters everyone July 26, 2024.

Remember when Kevin Feige said he wanted the Marvel Cinematic Universe to still be going strong over 80 years from now? Now, Kevin, it’s bold of you assume that society, and by extension film franchises, will be going strong 80 years from now. Nevertheless, it’s a beautiful dream, even if most of us would be quicker to hope for 80 more years of X-Men ’97.

Indeed, while Earth-199999 continues to recalibrate itself, Beau DeMayo‘s mutant-centric masterpiece has been deadlifting Marvel Studios’ reputation for over a month now, and we’ve still got an epic, three-part finale to work through at the time of writing.

The question is, then; when all is said and done, how many of X-Men ’97‘s hearty creative calories will we have consumed?

How many episodes of X-Men ’97 will there be?

By the time season one of X-Men ’97 has concluded, 10 episodes will have greeted us. This is far from the final answer, however, as a second season is currently in production as we speak, and a third season stands by in development.

Whether or not the following seasons will also consist of 10 episodes is anyone’s guess, but it wouldn’t be a terribly unsafe bet. The real question is whether season three will be able to keep the show’s momentum — and, subsequently, the demand — going.

Indeed, with season one and two having been spearheaded by the now-fired Beau DeMayo (the reason for his firing remains undeclared), whose writing is entirely responsible for making ’97 as sensational as it is, time will only tell if his season three successor can pull off something similar. That assumes, of course, that Marvel Studios doesn’t welcome DeMayo back before then.

X-Men ’97 is currently streaming on Disney Plus, with new episodes releasing every Wednesday until the season finale on May 15.

With a year that seems to be flying by, the end of July will be on our doorsteps before we know it, and with it the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s lone bastion of 2024 in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Until that day, many questions will be begged; is the film really going to pull a Marvel Jesus and lead the Feigeverse to salvation? What are the implications of this influx of legacy mutants into the MCU? When will Cassandra Nova rear her head again (because if she’s a one-off villain, riots will ensue)? What could possibly await in the inevitable mid- and post-credits scenes when the whole movie is the most unprecedented cameo-fest as is?

All this and more will be answered in due time. Speaking of, how much time will we be spending with Wade and Logan over the course of their feature-length teamup?

How long is Deadpool & Wolverine?

While there’s no official confirmation on Deadpool & Wolverine‘s runtime as of yet, the popular scuttlebutt making its rounds on the web is that the film will clock in at just over two hours, which is a strong educated guess just as much as it’s a rumor.

Indeed, of the 33 released films within the MCU, 21 of them range between two hours and two-and-a-half hours, with just eight running for under two hours, and the remaining four (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Eternals, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Avengers: Endgame) either meeting or exceeding two-and-a-half hour runtimes. Suffice to say, then, that even though Deadpool & Wolverine‘s length isn’t officially confirmed, we can probably rest easy in the assumption that we’re in for 120+ minutes of red and yellow spandex in our faces.

Deadpool & Wolverine slices and dices into theaters on July 26.