New Deadpool & Wolverine Trailer Lets Blood and Curses Fly

Movies

Healing factors collide as Marvel has released the second trailer – or the first trailer after the teaser and the teaser for the trailer, but let’s just call it the second trailer – for Deadpool & Wolverine, the MCU’s sole theatrical 2024 release. While the plot is mostly a mystery, the trailers reveal that it involves Deadpool being recruited by the Time Variance Authority to save the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for which he must team up with Wolverine from an alternate timeline. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman return as the title characters, with Morena Baccarin, Leslie Uggams, Emma Corrin, and Matthew McFadyen in supporting roles; a host of characters from other Marvel films – specifically the Fox X-Men series – are expected to turn up in cameos. Written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Zeb Wells, with an assist from Reynolds, and directed by Shawn Levy, Deadpool & Wolverine will arrive in theaters on July 26, 2024. You can see the new trailer below:

Deadpool & Wolverine looks like a lot of fun, which is exactly what it needs to be for a few reasons. First, it’s a Deadpool movie, and a joyless Wade Wilson adventure would be a waste of time (par for the course for Disney and the new and “improved” MCU, but still a waste of time). Second, if you’re pitting Deadpool against Wolverine, you have to make the most of that setup, which means a lot of action and a lot of comic bickering. Third, dear God, the MCU needs to have some fun again. And I mean real fun, the kind devoid of mood-killing social messages and stupid humor that doesn’t land. The kind of fun the Deadpool movies are. Deadpool & Wolverine needs to be a cathartic dose of crowd-pleasing entertainment before the droning lecture that Star-Spangled Falcon will no doubt be. We’ve had enough vegetables from these people; it’s time for an ice cream sundae with a side of burgers and ribs.

The second Deadpool & Wolverine trailer also assures us that this will be an R-rated movie, not the sanitized Disney version of Deadpool many of us rightly feared it would be. The two stars let the fucks fly with reckless abandon, and it’s fun to hear them refuse to restrain themselves. This is the buddy cop formula for superheroes (or a superhero and an antihero), and we all knew they’d begin the film antagonistic towards each other; for characters like Logan and Wade Wilson, that means constant sniping without reservation. But it isn’t just the cursing; Deadpool & Wolverine will have plenty of violence, and not the bloodless PG-13 kind with ray guns and gelatinous alien goop. These guys cut through enemies – and each other – and the blood splashes across the scenery. Again, this is exactly what a franchise that’s begun to feel old needs: a change of pace that makes their new movie exciting again. Even the hints of violence to come are enticing, like Deadpool threatening to blow Wolverine’s head off and Logan giving that “Go ahead, bub” smile because he knows bullets are useless against him.

As for the story, well, we don’t know much yet. It involves the multiverse and the TVA, and the rumors about Emma Corrin playing Cassandra Nova appear to have been right. (This is fine, but they need to get over that “A male hero can’t defeat a female villain” nonsense; I don’t want this big conflict set up with the heroes just so Blind Al can kill Cassandra.) It also looks like this will not be the Wolverine from the Fox series but a variant, which I’m not crazy about. I know they don’t want to interfere with Logan, but this reinforces the problem with the multiverse – the characters don’t mean as much when they’re diluted like this. On the other hand, I like the idea of Wolverine failing the X-Men and needing redemption, and I’m up for Hugh Jackman getting to play with the tragedy in that story.

Aside from the main stuff, there are a lot of small things to love in the new Deadpool & Wolverine trailer, in part because they point to many other details we’ll see in the movie. I got a big kick out of the store called Liefeld’s. (If you don’t know, Rob Liefeld is the co-creator of Deadpool with Fabian Nicieza.) I’m also exceedingly happy to see Wolverine’s costume without the sleeves; I wonder if that’s for the final battle or if he’ll lose them early on. I couldn’t make out many cameos, but I definitely saw Lady Deathstrike in the distance; I believe Azazel (whom I first thought was Loki) was also there. And that big helmeted head looks like Giant Man’s; I wonder if the MCU’s champions have been killed, and Deadpool and Wolverine have to save the dead superheroes. Just based on visuals like that, this actually feels more like Old Man Logan than Logan did, at least in certain ways. I like the use of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” as well; I’m a sucker for action scenes juxtaposed with an inappropriate song. And, finally, that cocaine bit is begging for a mid-credits follow-up where Wade looks at a mountain of it and says, “Fuck you, Feige,” or something like that.

I love this trailer. The marketing for Deadpool & Wolverine continues to impress me, and against my better judgment (Zeb Wells, a She-Hulk writer, worked on this movie), I’m excited for this one.