The full trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine is here, and it’s packed full of Easter eggs. From Ant-Man’s skull to some familiar-looking portals, the return of the Merc with the Mouth seems like it’s setting itself up as the most outward-looking MCU release of the past few years, and that’s not even taking into account all the X-Men cameos we know about.
However, there’s one particular pattern that's been emerging in everything we’ve seen with Deadpool 3 so far that’s got me very excited: its link to Loki. The first teaser set up that the Time Variance Authority will feature prominently in the Marvel Phase 5 film, and the second trailer doubled down on some particularly intriguing nods.
Among the moments we spotted were a suspicious-looking cloud that seemed just like Alioth and Wade Wilson brutally taking down some TVA agents. Then, there’s Cassandra Nova’s headquarters, which seems to be inside Ant-Man’s helmet. Now, that’s a very similar-looking location to the Void in Loki season 1, which if you’ll recall was the place the TVA sent everything they pruned, and where we first met more Loki variants.
These little Easter eggs are very intriguing by themselves when speculating about what story Wade Wilson’s MCU introduction will follow. But more than that, I think the fact that Deadpool 3 is in conversation with one of Marvel’s best TV shows in such a prominent way is a really good sign of what’s to come.
A guiding light
In a sea of pretty bad misses for Marvel, Loki has been a rare bright spot in the MCU’s post-Endgame line-up. Season 1 established a new intriguing take on the fan-favorite villain with a totally different tone, before season 2 took that to another notch with the introduction of Ke Huy Quan’s O.B. and some more time-bending fun.
Thanks to its wacky tone, it feels like a perfect match-up with Deadpool, who has been one of Marvel’s most unique heroes since Ryan Reynolds first brought the foul-mouthed mutant to the screen. Now he’s joining the MCU, it feels like Loki’s world is the perfect setting to throw him into. I mean, really, who doesn’t want to see Wade causing chaos in the straight-laced TVA?
But more than this, Loki season 2 – and its heartbreaking conclusion for its anti-hero – has been the best exploration of the consequences and moral quandaries that the multiverse invites. It’s not just about fun cameos and bringing in different variants of characters we know and love, but it’s about who gets to decide who’s story is definitive, and if we ever really should be able to make those calls.
The Multiverse Saga, and the MCU as a whole, is at a critical juncture. Not only has it not been working well with fans and fired the actor playing its main villain, but the big screen Avengers movies are getting ever closer. It’s time for Marvel to get serious about its next stage of universe-destroying threats and we need a proper comprehensive movie exploration of this outside of simply sending characters to a different universe for more fun cameos. Could Deadpool 3 be just that?
Double bluff
Now look, all these references and nods may just be red herrings from the Merc with the Mouth. The very fact that we’ve been shown them at all given Marvel’s usual tendency for secrecy has me feeling pretty suspicious too. Then there’s the fact that Loki himself, Tom Hiddleston, has been pretty tight-lipped about any potential involvement in Deadpool & Wolverine too.
But even if Wade Wilson’s entry into the MCU is only pulling from some of the ideas introduced in Loki and its exploration of the multiverse, I’ll be happy. Loki season 2 has been the only project, bar Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, that has felt like a cohesive exploration of what the multiverse means in this stage of the MCU. And if Logan and Wade can capture some of that magic, with their own Deadpool-style tone, we could be in for something very special indeed.
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