Is ‘Deadpool’ a Marvel Movie & Part of the MCU?

Wade Wilson, also known as Deadpool, is one of the most specific and unique characters ever introduced on the pages of Marvel Comics. Thanks to his ability to break the fourth wall, Deadpool is completely aware that he’s a fictional comic book character, and Ryan Reynolds’ portrayal of Regenerating Degenerate further cemented the character’s status in pop culture. We know that the upcoming ‘Deadpool 3’ is the first ‘Deadpool’ movie produced by Marvel Studios after their owner, Disney, purchased Fox for a little over $71 billion in 2019. So, does that make previous ‘Deadpool’ movies a part of the MCU? Now we’re going to answer.

Fox made the first two ‘Deadpool’ movies, and they’re officially a part of Fox’s X-Men movie franchise, so they’re separate from MCU. However, the upcoming ‘Deadpool 3’ is set to transfer the character from Fox’s franchise to Disney’s MCU, and, likely, Deadpool’s awareness that he’s a fictional character and his fourth-wall-breaking will make sure he debuts in the MCU in the smoothest and funniest way possible. Even though he’s not a part of the MCU yet, Deadpool is very aware that MCU exists, which could’ve been seen in numerous pop culture references in ‘Deadpool 2.’

‘Deadpool 3’ is one of the most anticipated MCU projects at the moment. Not only that the movie will introduce the Merc with a Mouth to the MCU, but the movie will also see the return of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. It’s also going to be the first R-rated MCU movie ever. While MCU will reboot many characters featured in Fox’s franchise, there was never any doubt that Deadpool could be played by anyone but Ryan Reynolds. Marvel Studios was completely aware of that, and that’s why Deadpool will debut in the MCU in the middle of his own franchise.

Ryan Reynolds’ first debut as Wade Wilson didn’t go really well.

Let’s go back to the past a bit. In 1994, Fox acquired the rights for the movie adaptation of X-Men, and the ‘X-Men’ movie series kicked off with the original movie released in 2000. After the original trilogy was concluded with ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ in 2006, Fox decided to develop a spin-off movie to depict Wolverine’s origin story. Hugh Jackman reprised the role in 2009’s ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine,’ which also introduced Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson, as you might remember (although maybe you’d prefer that you don’t).

Wolverine’s first solo movie received negative reviews criticizing its writing, pacing, and visual effects. Hugh Jackman also expressed his unhappiness with the movie, and fans and audiences ridiculed the depiction of Wade Wilson. Although Wolverine’s story continued in 2013’s ‘The Wolverine’ and 2014’s ‘X-Men: Days of the Future Past,’ which received much better, it took years for Ryan Reynolds to develop a movie worthy of Deadpool’s name.

Ryan Reynolds debuted as the true Deadpool in the 2016 homonymous movie directed by Tim Miller. The movie was highly successful, and with $782 million, it became the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever at the time of its release. Two years later, the sequel ‘Deadpool 2’ was released to comparable critical and commercial success. The post-credit scenes of ‘Deadpool 2’ were some of the best of that kind in the superhero genre. It’s enough to say that Deadpool practically erased Wade Wilson from the first ‘Wolverine’ movie and Reynolds’ ‘Green Lantern’ movie from existence in a truly spectacular way.

Deadpool is less than a year from joining MCU! But what after that?

Disney’s acquisition of Fox delayed the development of ‘Deadpool 3,’ but Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige assured fans that Ryan Reynolds would return to the role despite the ending of Fox’s X-Men franchise. Last year, Ryan Reynolds finally announced ‘Deadpool 3’ with a special guest star, Hugh Jackman, who will return to play Wolverine one more time after he initially retired from the role following 2017’s ‘Logan.’

The release date was initially set to September 2024, before it was delayed to November 2024, and most recently, the movie was moved up to May 3, 2024. It was confirmed that the movie would feature many returning stars from previous ‘Deadpool’ movies, including Morena Baccarin, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Brianna Hildebrand, Shioli Kutsuna, Stefan Kapičić, and Rob Delaney.

However, while Kevin Feige’s promise that ‘Deadpool 3’ will keep its signature R-rating is indeed reassuring, we aren’t sure what the plans are with Deadpool once he joins the MCU. Ryan Reynolds will definitely want to play the character for as long as he could possibly can, but if Deadpool ever needs to cross over with other MCU heroes, how will the writers pull that off since we all know that MCU movies are regularly always PG-13?

Even if Deadpool joins some other MCU movies, ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ for example, it will be hard to implement such a character into that movie because the ‘Avengers’ is the studio’s biggest brand, and those movies will surely remain PG-13 to make them suitable for the target audiences; kids, teenagers, and youngsters.

We don’t know how long forward Kevin Feige and Ryan Reynolds have planned Deadpool’s future on the big screen, but we are surely looking forward to this anticipated threequel, and we bet that won’t be the last time we’ll see our beloved Merc with a Mouth. As long as Ryan Reynolds is on board, we aren’t worrying about the live-action Deadpool.

Shawn Levy, who previously worked with Reynolds on ‘Free Guy’ and ‘The Adam Project,’ has signed to direct ‘Deadpool 3’ from the script written by himself, Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Zeb Wells. ‘Deadpool 3’ is currently in production and will be released on May 3, 2024.

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