By George & Josh Bate
The highlight of Disney’s 2024 CinemaCon presentation was easily Deadpool & Wolverine, Marvel Studios’ first R-rated film. The two heroes played by Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman respectively kicked CinemaCon off with a hilarious video they seemingly filmed specifically for CinemaCon. In the clip, Deadpool and Wolverine are walking and begin to talk about a mysterious cameo in Avengers: Secret Wars when a cell phone goes off. Wolverine proceeds to face the camera and leads an explicit-filled tirade against the audience, warning everyone of what he’ll do to them if their phones aren’t silenced.
Later on in the presentation, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige came on stage to talk about the film and present exclusive footage to the CinemaCon crowd.
In a resounding statement, Kevin Feige said Deadpool & Wolverine is “fucking awesome.” The crowd went wild as Feige dropped an F-bomb, to which Feige responded he’s now allowed to do “because it’s an R-rated movie.”
Feige spoke about how Deadpool & Wolverine being rated R is a definite change of pace for the typically family friendly franchise. Feige mentioned that he asked designers to create a popcorn bucket for the upcoming movie, but, unlike Dune: Part Two’s infamous bucket, the one for Deadpool & Wolverine will be intentionally crude.
Joining Feige on stage to talk more about Deadpool & Wolverine was director Shawn Levy, who presented 9 minutes of exclusive footage to the CinemaCon crowd.
Check out a detailed description of the 9 minutes of footage below…
The footage begins as Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson works at a used car store. He tries (and fails) to sell a car to a friendly family as their ride is derailed by Wilson’s penchant for inappropriate language. Wilson makes a pointed remark about having kids, suggesting this is unlikely to happen as he tends to not have vaginal intercourse.
The next scene showed Wade joined by Rob Delaney’s Peter, who became a fan favorite after his appearance in Deadpool 2. Wade has retired from being Deadpool, despite Peter keeping Wade’s costume in case he ever decides to pick up the mantle again.
Wade and Peter head to Wade’s apartment, where they walk into a surprise birthday party for Wade. Present are many of the side characters from the first two Deadpool films. There’s Lewis Tan as Shatterstar and Shioli Kutsuna as Yukio, both of whom were introduced in Deadpool 2. There was also Negasonic Teenage Warhead, played again by Brianna Hildebrand. Leslie Uggams returns as Blind Al, Deadpool’s blind and elderly roommate. Karan Soni is back as Dopinder, the taxi driver-turned-friend introduced in the first film. And lastly there is Morena Baccarin as Vanessa. Baccarin’s character was once Wade’s fiance, but this scene in Deadpool & Wolverine suggests the two have broken up and that their relationship now is platonic (they refer to one another as buddies).
Wade makes his way through all of the party guests in a number of humorous interactions. Just as he gets ready to blow the candles of his birthday cake out, there’s a knock on the door. Wade opens the door and is greeted by various TVA officers in a scene that was previewed in the first trailer for the film. A back-and-forth that extends this interaction from the trailer proceeds, followed by Wade being sent to the TVA.
Greeting him at the TVA is Mr. Paradox, played by Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen. This sequence was also shown in the trailer, although it’s greatly expanded in the footage shown at CinemaCon.
Mr. Paradox orients Wade to the TVA in an introduction just like Loki received when he was taken to the TVA. Mr. Paradox explains the organization’s purpose of ensuring the safety of the sacred timeline and said that Wade has been brought here for a reason. When Wade suggests this may be due to his time-travel antics with Cable from Deadpool 2, Mr. Paradox dismisses this, instead indicating that, although he doesn’t have all of the details, Wade is at the TVA for a special reason.
That special reason remains elusive, but Mr. Paradox does reveal more about the plot of Deadpool & Wolverine here. Mr. Paradox walks Wade over to a series of monitors, which show clips from various MCU films (we caught glimpses of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and what looked like Thor). When Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers appears on one of the screens, Wade exclaims, “Cap!” and gives the screen a sarcastic salute.
Another screen shows what appears to be a variant of Deadpool dying in the arms of a weeping Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth. When Wade questions what this is, Mr. Paradox dismisses Wade and says that this doesn’t happen until quite a while into the future.
Mr. Paradox then tells Wade that he has been brought to the TVA to leave his universe and join another. In a classic fourth-wall break, Wade makes it very clear to the audience that this universe he is joining is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When Mr. Paradox confirms Wade’s suspicion, Wade excitedly runs to the camera, screams something along the lines of “Fuck Fox!” and says “I’m going to Disneyland!”
After this, Wade is given a new suit from the TVA. He puts it on with the assistance of a predatory tailor before jokingly insulting a menial TVA employee for looking at him.
The clip then cut to an extended trailer, which showed parts of other scenes from Deadpool & Wolverine. Much of this was seen in the trailer previously released to the public, although it does show our best look yet at Hugh Jackman’s return as Wolverine. Deadpool and Wolverine are seen driving in a car together and clearly Jackman’s Wolverine can’t stand Reynolds’ Deadpool. If this brief moment is any indication, the chemistry and back-and-forth between Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds will be off the charts in this new film.
Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters July 26, 2024