Deadpool & Wolverine is finally in theaters! The first R-rated MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) movie mashed together the Fox movies with the world of the Avengers and left no prisoners behind in its smoking ruin. Pretty dramatic way of saying that, but that’s not what you’re here for. You want a Deadpool & Wolverine ending explained.
Look, to pull back the curtain a bit, I know these “ending explained” type pieces are the subject of internet mockery. Sometimes they’re necessary, like with a convoluted, mind-bending ending. Sometimes, they’re not (does someone really need the end of rom-com A Family Affair explained? I doubt it). But in the case of Deadpool & Wolverine, it might be less about what happens in the final scene of the movie, which is pretty straightforward; than how we get there. More of a “plot explained,” if you will.
So, that’s what we’re going to do. I’ll give you a recap of what I think happens over the course of Deadpool & Wolverine — I say I think because I have spent every waking hour since I saw it at a press screening Monday night trying to unravel what the heck was going on — and then explain the ending.
And because you may be curious, I’ll also break down the end credits scene, whether there will be more for Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in the MCU, and even when you might be able to watch the movie at home. You know, so you can better understand that ending.
Okay, let’s get into it. And of course, spoilers for A Family Affair past this point. Oops, sorry, I mean spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine.
Deadpool & Wolverine Recap: What Happens In Deadpool 3?
In the threequel, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is just trying to live a normal life. He’s hit a rut and broken up with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) — or rather gotten broken up with — because he can’t think of anyone but himself. He’s also, and this is confusingly explained (IMO) used the time travel device he stole from Cable (Josh Brolin) in Deadpool 2 to resurrect most of his friends, and travel the multiverse. That includes making a stopover to Earth 616 to try and convince Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) to let him join the Avengers. How will Deadpool getting on the Avengers, a team that doesn’t exist on his Earth as far as we know, impress his girlfriend? Hard to say!
He doesn’t get it, of course, and sadly goes back to working at the car lot with Peter (Rob Delaney). At his birthday party, the toupeed Wade is actually pretty happy, or at least settled: everyone he cares about is in his home with him.
That’s when a squad from the TVA (Time Variance Authority) shows up, drags him through a portal, and introduces him to Mr. Paradox (Matthew MacFadyen). You’d think Deadpool was being dragged in front of the TVA for messing with multiple timelines, but nope. As it turns out, the Fox movie universe’s Logan (Hugh Jackman) is what’s called an “Anchor Being,” aka a person so important that without them the entire timeline crumbles. Due to Logan’s death at the end of 2017’s Logan, the Fox universe is ending. Yes, that happens in the future. But as Mr. Paradox explains some events are so important they travel back through time.
Two things come out of that. The first is that for some reason that is never explained in the movie, Deadpool is special. The TVA wants to take him from the Fox universe and put him into the Sacred Timeline, aka the MCU. The not-so-subtle subtext is that Disney would like to keep Deadpool, and jettison the rest of the Fox universe. But to jump ahead the movie directly contradicts that by introducing one hundred other Deadpools that were discarded. They’ve got choices, is my point.
The second, for a similarly inexplicable reason, is that Mr. Paradox is pissed about how, after the events of Loki, the TVA doesn’t eliminate timelines anymore, called pruning. Paradox loves pruning. He’s had his division go rogue and set up a Time Ripper, a device that will prune the timeline now, instead of waiting for possibly a thousand years.
When Deadpool discovers this, and that Mr. Paradox doesn’t plan on bringing Deadpool’s friends to the MCU with him, Deadpool grabs a TemPad — the doohickey that lets the TVA head throughout the multiverse — and goes to get Logan back. I’m explaining this in chronological order, but we actually hit this point at the beginning of the movie — in media res, if you will — as Deadpool digs up Logan’s corpse, and discovers he is beyond dead. Deadpool wears his skeleton and kills a squad of TVA soldiers, then heads to other parts of the multiverse to find a new Wolverine to replace his anchor point.
That includes (in no order) a short Wolverine, Old Man Logan, Weapon Omega (from Age of Apocalypse), Wolverine fighting the Hulk from his original appearance, a crucified Wolverine from the cover of Uncanny X-Men #251, Patch, and Henry Cavill as the Cavillrine.
Deadpool ends up with the worst Wolverine, though — a drunk who killed his entire world, according to Mr. Paradox. Still set on his plan, Paradox prunes them both and sends them to The Void, the world at the end of time from Loki Season 1.
There, they fight, then meet up with a mysterious stranger with a thick Boston accent. At the same time, they’re approached by Pyro (Aaron Stanford) and the rejects of the X-Men movies, who all work for Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin). The mysterious stranger? It’s Chris Evans, playing not Captain America… But Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, from 2005’s Fantastic Four and the sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
They all get captured and taken to Cassandra Nova, who flays Johnny’s skin off because Evans’s paycheck is blowing out the budget (according to Deadpool). They also discover that Cassandra is Charles Xavier’s evil sister, who was taken to The Void as a baby. She has no interest in leaving, and in fact has a deal with the TVA: leave her alone, she’ll take in strays, and some she’ll feed to Alioth, the big smoke monster, also from Loki.
After escaping Alioth using what might be the foot of a Sentinel, Wolverine and Logan decide to find the resistance fighters who are on the edge of the Borderlands (info that was given to them by Johnny Storm). Along the way, they meet Dogpool, a dog variant of Wade Wilson, and Nicepool (also Reynolds), a handsome version of the character who is nice, but can still break the fourth wall. Gently, though.
As Logan and Wade travel in a borrowed car, they fight, fall unconscious, and eventually make their way to the resistance, only to discover it’s an all-star team of Fox rejects: Elektra (Jennifer Garner), Blade (Wesley Snipes), X-23 (Dafne Keen), and Gambit (Channing Tatum). After an insane amount of inside jokes about everything from Garner and Ben Affleck’s divorce to Snipes and Reynolds’ feud on the set of Blade: Trinity, to Tatum digging into the nearly two decades he tried to get a Gambit movie off the ground, we get back to the “plot” of the movie.
The group decides they want a real ending, so they’re going to attack Cassandra Nova to get Wolverine and Deadpool home and save their universe. How? Unclear, but in order to do it they need the Juggernaut’s helmet, to shut down Cassandra Nova’s mental powers. Why? Also unclear. They just do.
Before they attack, though, Logan has a heart-to-heart with X-23, aka Laura, as he explains that one day he went off and got drunk, and when he did humans came to the X-Mansion and killed the X-Men. And then he killed everyone right back. So he’s not the guy to help, except as Laura explains, “You were never the guy. Until you were.”
Anyway, they all head to Cassandra Nova’s base, which is a giant Ant-Man skeleton — including Wolverine — for the final battle. Everyone fights, Blade says, “Some motherf**kers are still always trying to ice-skate uphill,” and I guess they all get their glorious ending as Alioth consumes them? I dunknow.
While that’s going on, Wolverine distracts Cassandra Nova with his sad, intrusive thoughts long enough to allow X-23 to get the Juggernaut helmet, and Deadpool to put it on her. Unfortunately, it turns out Pyro was a mole working for the TVA, and shoots her a bunch of times. She can get Deadpool and Wolverine home, but they need to take off the helmet so she can get her powers back.
They agree, and she uses a Sling Ring — aka, the thing Doctor Strange uses — with a reality stone and time stone in it, to open a portal to send them back to the Fox universe. Which brings us to the actual final battle.
Deadpool & Wolverine Ending Explained:
Back in Deadpool’s home universe, Mr. Paradox is quickly booting up the Time Ripper to destroy it, while… The TVA is there in the universe? Very weird. Meanwhile, Cassandra Nova decides she wants to use the Time Ripper to rip apart not just Deadpool’s universe, but also the entire multiverse. Why does she do this? Again, unclear, but she does.
So they have to stop Paradox, and also stop Cassandra Nova. Standing between them are the Deadpool Corps, the 100 Deadpools I mentioned earlier, who Wolverine and Deadpool (our one) fight their way through after Nicepool gets murdered after being used as a human shield. Also Lady Deadpool is there and her identity — she’s voiced by Blake Lively, by the way — doesn’t matter one bit. Sorry, the internet.
The thing they forget, though, is that Deadpools (other than Nicepool) regenerate. That’s when Peter shows up in Wade’s previous Deadpool outfit as Peterpool. They all love Peter, and let Deadpool and Wolverine go save the day.
Side note: this is about when Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku), who runs the TVA after the events of Loki Season 2, realizes Paradox has gone rogue.
Back to the main “plot,” Paradox regrets all the life choices that have brought him to this point, as Cassandra Nova uses the Time Ripper to begin the process of destroying the multiverse. The only way of stopping her? Bring together two energy poles that are far away from each other and connect them with your body, which will kill whoever does it. You know where this is going, but after Logan decides to sacrifice himself, Deadpool does it instead so that he can “matter.” Wolverine breaks through a metal door, and the two of them hold hands, dispersing the energy and saving the multiverse.
Cassandra Nova dies in the process, and Deadpool and Wolverine seemingly die too. But they don’t. Mr. Paradox tries to implicate them in the disaster to Hunter B-15, but it doesn’t work. He gets taken away, and Deadpool makes a deal to save his universe while Hunter B-15 has an intense erotic connection with Peter.
After eating some shawarma, which the Avengers invented, Deadpool invites Wolverine over to his house for a party. Everyone is there, including Laura, aka X-23, who they saved (but not Elektra, Blade, or Gambit, I guess?), and they all drink and laugh. And having finally done something selfless, Wade reconnects with Vanessa. The camera pans to Wolverine’s cowl and Deadpool’s mask. The end!
Does Deadpool & Wolverine Have End Credits Or Post Credits Scene?
Yep! There’s a montage of behind-the-scenes paying tribute to nearly two decades of Fox/Marvel movies over the credits. And then an end credits scene that reveals Johnny Storm said some awful things about Cassandra Nova. Read our full description and breakdown of the Deadpool & Wolverine end credits scene for more.
Will There Be A Deadpool 4? When Will Deadpool And Wolverine Return To The MCU?
It’s far too early to tell if there will be a Deadpool 4, a Deadpool & Wolverine 2, or even if Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman will pop up more in the MCU. Certainly, there’s the tease seen towards the beginning of the movie with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) crying over Deadpool, which could be a scene teeing up the sixth Avengers movie, aka Secret Wars. But that’s very much TBA.
However, despite the increasing age of both Reynolds and Jackman, they clearly had a blast working with each other, and in the MCU. Director Shawn Levy, too, has expressed interest in more Marvel movies. And Marvel chief Kevin Feige seems to be open. If Deadpool and Wolverine don’t show up in Secret Wars, I’d be shocked — particularly after the big opening weekend this movie is expected to have.
When Will Deadpool & Wolverine Be On Streaming?
You can check out our full explainer about the possible Deadpool & Wolverine streaming date, but the short version is: Disney hasn’t announced one. The slightly longer version is that the movie will most likely be available to rent and own around either September 24 or October 1, 2024. And again, speculation, but it will most likely be available to stream on Disney+ on either October 23, or October 25, 2024. We’ll have to wait and see whether that pans out, though!
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