According to a new MCU theory, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool will be copying Avengers: Endgame’s time travel storyline in Marvel Studios’ upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine. The first trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine finally released on February 11, 2024, revealing new details about the upcoming Marvel Studios debut of Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. As 2024’s only theatrical MCU release, Deadpool & Wolverine is one of Marvel Studios’ most highly-anticipated projects. Set to premiere on July 26, 2024, Deadpool & Wolverine is expected to change the landscape of the MCU forever by featuring Deadpool’s permanent move from Fox’s X-Men Universe.
Deadpool & Wolverine’s first trailer reveals that Wade Wilson will be approached by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) for an important task, though the exact details of this mission are still unclear. Much of the trailer appears to set Deadpool & Wolverine in the Void at the end of time, which was first seen in Marvel Studios’ Loki series on Disney+. While this will provide the opportunity for several pruned characters to appear, including Aaron Stanford’s Pyro, Deadpool & Wolverine’s trailer also features the titular Merc-with-a-Mouth in some iconic locations from the MCU’s history, informing a major Marvel Studios theory.
Since Deadpool will become embroiled in the TVA’s plans in Deadpool & Wolverine, it’s likely he will acquire the organizations ability to jump between the infinite branching timelines of the multiverse. This will allow Deadpool to time travel to various points throughout the MCU’s history, similarly to how the surviving Avengers embarked on the dangerous Time Heist in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. While the Avengers sought to claim the Infinity Stones, however, Deadpool’s exact mission in Deadpool & Wolverine is less clear-cut, though his potential appearances in past MCU locations and time periods could point to some major plot threads unfolding.
Deadpool & Wolverine’s trailer has provided only brief glimpses at some past MCU settings, so not much can yet be deciphered about the details of the upcoming project’s story. However, Deadpool seems to find himself in a snowy forest similar to the one depicted in the opening moments of 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and also appears to revisit a peculiar location from 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok. This adds weight to the idea that Deadpool may be traveling throughout the MCU’s history in Deadpool & Wolverine, potentially repeating Avengers: Endgame’s time travel narrative, and perhaps getting in the TVA’s bad books.
The first trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine shows Deadpool fighting several TVA Minute Men in a snowy forest, which bears a striking resemblance to the Sokovian forest in which the Avengers battle HYDRA in the opening of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Some have theorized that this could actually be the setting for Wolverine’s death in 2017’s Logan, rather than a location from Age of Ultron, but since Deadpool & Wolverine is unlikely to mess with Logan’s timeline, it doesn’t make sense for this location to be featured. Instead, Age of Ultron’s timeline being revisited could massively change the MCU’s history.
Avengers: Age of Ultron fully introduced Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, to the MCU, following the tease of their debuts in Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s post-credits scene. In Marvel Comics, prior to being retconned, the Maximoff twins were prominent mutants, and since Deadpool & Wolverine will feature many mutant characters, it’s possible that the MCU’s Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver could finally be revealed as mutants in the upcoming film. It’s even possible that Deadpool could save Quicksilver’s life in Deadpool & Wolverine, perhaps allowing the wasted hero to return to the MCU.
Another curious location revealed in Deadpool & Wolverine’s trailer is Sakaar, the landfill-style planet first seen in Thor: Ragnarok. Thor found himself on Sakaar after an altercation with Hela, the Goddess of Death. There, he found Bruce Banner’s Hulk, who had been living on Sakaar for two years following his self-imposed exile at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron. The Hulk had become the Grandmaster’s Champion, and, as such, had been gifted a huge suite, while the other gladiators resided in prison, and it’s the Hulk’s suite that seems to make a reappearance in the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer.
For a brief moment, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool can be seen sitting on a bed surrounded by teeth. This bed has the same design as the Hulk’s bed from Thor: Ragnarok, meaning Deadpool may be visiting Sakaar for some reason. A scene from Thor: Ragnarok is featured on a screen when Matthew Macfadyen’s Paradox is showing Deadpool the MCU’s heroes, though it’s unclear what significance the Taika Waititi-directed project has in the MCU’s Phase 5. Perhaps Deadpool will use the opportunity to rewrite Thor: Love and Thunder, allowing Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor to return, and negating criticisms of the 2022 project.
Since it’s possible that two locations from the MCU’s history may be revisited in Deadpool & Wolverine, there’s a chance that Deadpool will be finding himself in even more. Whether Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is with him on this journey is unclear, as the clawed X-Men member wasn’t featured heavily in Deadpool & Wolverine’s first trailer, though more information will likely soon be revealed. Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor: Ragnarok are perhaps unexpected choices to be revisited in the MCU’s Phase 5, as it seems more likely that Deadpool may poke fun at Marvel Studios’ more recent and controversial projects.
Aside from Age of Ultron’s forest, Ragnarok’s Sakaaran bedroom, and the Void from Loki on Disney+, some have suggested that Deadpool will be visiting Madripoor in Deadpool & Wolverine. Madripoor was first seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and is famously the setting of many Wolverine-centric storylines in Marvel Comics, and is where the locals know Wolverine as the white-jacket-wearing Patch. Deadpool’s meta humor means any location from the MCU could be seen in Deadpool & Wolverine, so the Phase 5 film has the potential to rewrite some classic moments and alter the course of the MCU forever.
