Deadpool And Wolverine Trailer Breakdown: All The Easter Eggs And References
The new trailer is here!
The latest Deadpool & Wolverine trailer has arrived, and we finally have a sense of what’s going on in this movie and who the villain is. Emma Corrin takes on the role of Cassandra Nova, Charles Xavier’s evil twin sister (Don’t worry, we’ll get into that) for the next Deadpool movie. Obviously, Ryan Reynolds returns to the role of Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman returns as Wolverine. However, there is a lot more happening in this trailer than meets the eye. There is a lot more to learn compared to the last one.
Scouring through every moment of the movie, we found plenty of Easter eggs, references, and more information about the movie–along with nods to the comics that introduced these characters as well. So we’re breaking down what we found and presenting it to you.
Deadpool & Wolverine is directed by Shawn Levy (Stranger Things, Free Guy, The Adam Project) and written by Levy, Reynolds, and Rhett Reese (Twisted Metal, Deadpool, Deadpool 2). It hits theaters on July 26.
Typical recruitment
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) sure does spend a lot of time in bars, right? Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) tries to recruit him for his mission early on in the trailer. Per usual, Wolvie isn’t interested. This scene may feel a little familiar, and that’s because it happened once in X-Men: First Class. Professor X and Magneto are recruiting mutants for their team, and they stumble upon Wolverine in a bar, they introduce themselves, to which Logan replies, “Go f**k yourself.” That doesn’t happen directly here, but it’s very reminiscent of that moment.
Some Deadpool humor
At this point, is anyone not familiar with who Deadpool is and what he’s about? For the sake of this piece and the one person interested in the trailer that may not be, Deadpool is an antihero Marvel mutant who is a satire of over-the-top, badass assassins that comic book companies were churning out over and over again. His creation took a lot of inspiration from DC’s assassin Deathstroke, who was a very serious killer. Deadpool is known for being comedic, so having the words, “Smile. Wait for the flash” on the end of his gun, is par for the course when it comes to this character’s brand.
Some quick Wolverine background
Wolverine’s long history is more convoluted than a five-minute Tik Tok video showing you a toilet cleaning “hack,” which involves at least seven different cleaning products. Here’s the super-duper basics. He’s also an antihero, primarily known for being a member of the X-Men (along with X-Force, Alpha Flight, The Avengers, and even the Fantastic Four–well, the “New” Fantastic Four). He has a healing factor almost as good as Deadpool’s, and he also has his entire skeleton–and claws protruding from his hands–covered in adamantium, the second strongest metal, behind Vibranium. So, when someone pulls a gun on him and points it at his head, he has no problem getting shot. It’s just going to hurt, a lot.
Also, fun note: Wolverine is always drinking in bars, but according to the comics, his body processes the alcohol so quickly that he really can’t get drunk, and if he does, it’s only for like a second after pounding a bottle of hard alcohol.
20th Century Fox logo
As mentioned in the previous trailer breakdown, the 20th Century Fox logo has been destroyed. Originally, that film studio had the rights to all the X-Men characters, so if you saw an X-Men movie, a Wolverine movie, or the first two Deadpool movies, 20th Century Fox was the distributor of those.
Wolverine’s suit
The original Wolverine suit–when he first appeared in an issue of Incredible Hulk–was a sleeveless yellow and blue suit. However, he’s had plenty of notable costume changes: yellow and brown, Weapon X, his all-black X-Force outfit. This one mostly resembles his look from 2004’s Astonishing X-Men with a few homages to his appearance in 1975’s Giant-Sized X-Men.
What happened to Wolverine’s world?
Apparently, “this Wolverine let down his entire world.” The imagery above is interesting, but we couldn’t make a connection to anything in the comics, not even Genosha. However, Wolverine letting his entire world down is the backstory of the comic Old Man Logan, where Wolverine was tricked into killing all of the X-Men by an illusion created by Mysterio. That, along with Red Skull killing the Avengers and Hulk becoming an incestual in-breeder, created this Max Max-like wasteland world, which we see something reminiscent in the trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine.
Third act flashback
Deadpool asks Wolverine what went wrong or if we should wait for a “third act flashback.” While that’s a very traditional tool of storytelling, that’s what happens at the tail end of Act Two of the Old Man Logan. I was hoping for Act Three, but after checking my comics, nope: Act Two.
Copper Heads
The bar in the background says “Copper Heads,” but what does that mean? Well, there are two Copperheads in the Marvel comics universe: one is a mantle for a vigilante and the other is a really silly villain. Let’s quickly discuss the latter. Copperhead (Davis Lawfers) is a Captain America villain and a member of the snake-themed terrorist group the Serpent Society. Yes, all of the member’s names are snake-related. It’s a pretty lame character and only memorable because of how silly it all is. As a side note, the Serpent Society might be a part of the next Captain America movie. Hey, if they made Batroc interesting, then Serpent Society shouldn’t be a problem.
Liefeld’s Just Feet
Rob Liefeld is one of the creators of Deadpool (along with Fabian Nicieza) and Liefeld is known for his artistic style, which dominated a lot of the mutant books during the ’80s and ’90s. However, Liefeld took a lot of criticism for either hiding characters’ feet in fog or behind rubble because when he did draw feet, some people didn’t like how they looked. Hence, we get that “Liefeld’s Just Feet” store in this scene.
Cassandra Nova
Here’s the villain of the story. Now, let’s get into the super-weird backstory of this character. Cassandra Nova is the twin of Charles Xavier. She’s a “Mummudrai,” a Shi-ar word that means “anti-self.” Every living being has one of these on the Astral Plane. Cassandra was the Mummudrai of Charles. In the womb, Charles could sense Cassandra was evil, and use his psychic powers to attack her–again, in the womb. This led to Cassandra being stillborn and Charles surviving. Stay with us, her body clung to sewer walls and started building itself for decades, and this entire time, she planned revenge on Charles. Yes, that is all canon.
She has all the same powers as Xavier. In addition, she can heal faster than a human, she has telekinesis, can phase through solid matter, create mutations in people with latent mutant abilities, and she can manipulate people’s DNA. Yep, that’s all her powers. It’s a lot.
Giant/Ant Man’s head
There’s a close-up above, but Nova’s base is in a Ant-Man suit, in giant form. Ant-Man is very much dead. In the Old Man Logan story, there is the skeleton and suit of Giant Man–Scott Lang–in the desert.
There’s also a lot of returning characters. Let’s take a look at who we recognize.
Lady Deathstrike and maybe more?
The woman on the right here is Lady Deathstrike, who appeared in X2. She was originally played by Kelly Hu. The remaining characters in this image–from left to right could be Calisto, Toad, and Starfish or Glob Hermman. All of these characters appeared in former X-Men/Wolverine movies, and since the Deadpool films love to pull from past X-movies, there’s a good chance we know these characters already.
Azazel and maybe more?
All the way on the left, there’s Azazel, from X-Men: First Class. From there, it gets pretty tricky to figure out who everyone is. We have a few guesses, the man in the red and white striped shirt could be Colossus, even if Stefan Kapicic is reprising his role as the character, which we saw in the first trailer, but Colossus did have a sweet beard in the comics for a hot minute. And this is the multiverse, so anything is possible. It could even be The Russian (played by Kevin Nash) from 2004’s The Punisher. Continuing on, based on the color scheme of the person directly to the right of the man in red and white, that could be Pyro, who we saw in the first trailer as well. Sabretooth is allegedly in this movie too, so maybe one of these guys is him? Regardless, the majority of these characters are notable to comic book or X-Men movie fans.
Dogpool
Dogpool is a real character in the comics. It’s Wade Wilson from Earth-103173. He was created in 2010 and has the same powers as Deadpool. Also, the look on Wolverine’s face when Dogpool licks Deadpool is priceless.
Teleporting?
Wolverine and Deadpool are jumping out of Ant-Man’s skull, away from Cassandra Nova, into an inter-dimensional portal, which are typically created by Sling Rings. Where are they going? Who knows? But more people than Wong or Strange can use Sling Rings. Ned was able to create portals using the ring in Spider-Man: No Way Home. So there’s a small chance we could see Ned again–or Wong or Strange or someone completely different with this ability.
Another look
Typically, when you’re jumping into these portals, you can see where you’re headed, but we believe this particular moment in the trailer has been censored so we can’t see where they are headed because it may ruin the story.
Everything we gathered from this trailer
Here’s what we know, based on this trailer. Deadpool is working with the TVA and traveling in the multiverse and needs to enlist the help of Wolverine. Wolverine’s world (whether it’s the wasteland we primarily see in the trailer or another one) is possibly under control by Cassandra Nova, Charles Xavier’s evil twin sister. Wolverine and Deadpool team up in order to stop her. Most likely, Nova’s a possible menace to the multiverse, and that’s why Wolverine and Deadpool need to work together. There will also be a lot of familiar faces in this movie. However, Wade will not be using cocaine, as he promised his friends he would not do so.
Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on July 26.
