Courtesy of Ryan Reynolds, the first full-length trailer for the hugely anticipated Deadpool & Wolverine was released today, and oh boy, it does not disappoint.
We had already been given a taste of what was to come when a teaser trailer was released during this year’s Super Bowl in February, and while it revealed a great deal about Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool’s role in the movie, Wolverine himself was only tantalizingly teased. It’s quite an odd concept when you consider that they’re teasing an actor, Hugh Jackman, who holds the record for the longest live-action portrayal of any superhero in cinematic history, having previously played Wolverine in nine pictures (cameos included) over a twenty-four-year period.
That being said, no actor is more synonymous with a single cinematic comic book character, and given that audiences, and Jackman himself, were convinced that the 2017 masterpiece Logan would be the Australian actor’s send-off as Wolverine, it’s certainly understandable that Marvel is hyping him up more than any other aspect of the film. The latest trailer more than capitalizes on audience anticipation, as it sheds a great deal of light on Hugh Jackman/Wolverine’s role in the film’s narrative, whilst assuring audiences that the superhero flick will retain the on-brand profanity and violence of the previous Deadpool movies, even in the more watered-down domain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, something that the trailer even toys around within its final moments as Deadpool and Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) discuss euphemisms for cocaine, with Wade telling her “cocaine is the one thing [Kevin] Feige said is off limits.”
The trailer wastes no time in revealing the Wolverine it had previously teased, where we find him in a bar drowning his sorrows as he is approached by Deadpool who, as we already know from the previous teaser, is there on behalf of the Time Variance Authority (TVA) to save his own timeline, for reasons yet unknown. It also seems that this version of Wolverine “failed his entire world”, at least according to Matthew Macfadyen’s Paradox, which offers little context, but we at least know that it is a variant of the character who is no less burdened than his previous portrayals.
While the reported tension between the two is certainly on display throughout the trailer, to the point of impaling and shooting one another, the trailer is chock full of F-bombs. By my count, there are six dropped in total, and they’re delivered with such emphasis that it’s clear Marvel is trying to prove a point, as I can’t remember the last time I watched a red band trailer where the word stood out so much.
The only aspect that outnumbers the amount of “fucks”, however, are the easter eggs, of which there are plenty. Putting aside the wish-fulfilling glory of finally seeing Wolverine in his classic yellow uniform, both with and without the sleeves, there’s a lot to unpack, not to mention what one can miss without multiple viewings of the trailer.
Perhaps one of the earliest things viewers will notice is the not-so-subtle 20th Century Fox sign buried in the desert where the two duke it out initially, harkening back to the previous owners of the X-Men rights until Disney bought it. Then, of course, there’s the giant Ant-Man suit barrelling through what is likely the same dessert, as it seems to have been changed into some sort of vehicle, with the helmet then lifting to briefly reveal a skull beneath, which is a dark way of telling audiences that this is not in the central timeline of the MCU, because the Ant-Man we know still lives after the events of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
As it happens, there is a blink-and-you’ll-miss it moment during the lifting of Ant-Man’s helmet, and beneath we can see the villains Lady Deathstrike, who appeared in X-2, and Azazel, who appeared in X-Men: First Class, both of whom will appear alongside other classic cinematic X-Men villains that have not yet been revealed in the trailers. Of course, there’s also the reveal of the movie’s primary villain, Emma Corrin’s Cassandra Nova, who is Professor Charles Xavier’s twin sister, a fact made clear by her own bald head.
Even with so much revealed, the Shawn Levy-directed picture no doubt has much more where that came from, and even if there were to be a second full-length trailer, or indeed another teaser, all will not be revealed until its July 26th release date, for what will arguably be Marvel’s most important release since Avengers: Endgame.