Deadpool And Wolverine served as a fun meta way to bring in the Deadpool character from the now defunct 20th Century Fox, into Marvel Studio’s shared universe. While also serving as a great end to that universe and those characters that paved the way for the MCU. However, the ending of the movie leaves the fate of that universe kind of open-ended. This makes me wonder if the Fox characters in the MCU could work as Marvel Studios’ universe of stories not connected to the main MCU, like DC Studios’ Elseworlds films. Read on for how that might work.
Please note that the following will feature spoilers for Deadpool And Wolverine.
How Shawn Levy Homaged The Fox Characters In The MCU
Image via Marvel Studios
One of the most surprising elements of Deadpool And Wolverine is how the movie somehow becomes a more emotional ending for characters from decades ago. Along with universe hopping in the multiverse, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) ends up meeting characters from the old Marvel-Fox universe, made when Marvel didn’t own the film rights to all their characters. That entire universe became defunct with the merger with Disney in 2019, given that Marvel Studios will reboot those characters within their established MCU.
Unlike the DCEU, the end of which was known long before its final films released, the Fox characters didn’t get the same kind of farewell. So it was a welcome surprise to see how Reynolds and Levy really homage the Fox characters in the MCU, with a story that honours their legacy. But the ending of Deadpool And Wolverine kind of makes it seem like that universe may be far from over.
Fox Characters In MCU Could Be Like DC Studios Elseworlds
Image via DC Comics
After becoming co-CEO of DC Studios, audiences learned that while James Gunn will herald a new shared universe starting with his Superman movie, the other DC movies and shows will remain separate. The biggest of these are Matt Reeves’ The Batman franchise, currently working on a film sequel and the new Penguin series, as well as the Joker film sequel, Folie a Deux. Those movies and stories will exist outside of the shared DCU, as separate stories not at all connected to the others. It’s a concept that comes from DC Comics, which saw Elseworlds titles as one-off comic book stories, diverging from the established origins of a character, to showcase an entirely new story. Similarly, the Fox characters in the MCU could work like their own Elseworlds.
The ending of Deadpool And Wolverine saw remnants of the Fox universe, revealed in the Multiverse to be from Earth-10005, somehow survive. After Deadpool requests for some of his old friends to be saved from the timeline, audiences see the Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) variant of the movie hanging out with X-23 (Dafne Keen), last seen fighting for her life in The Void, earlier in the movie.
This seems to mean that Keen was ‘saved’ from The Void and now exists in the timeline as the Fox version of that character. But it also implies that the other characters from the Fox universe, like the original Blade (Wesley Snipes), Elektra (Jennifer Garner) and most importantly to me, Gambit (Channing Tatum), may have also survived. Which leaves the door open for other characters from the Fox Universe to appear in future instalments. Something that Shawn Levy implies in a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
Marvel Studios’ Elseworlds Could Be Best Of Both Worlds
Image via Entertainment Weekly
While the ending of Deadpool And Wolverine was a little open-ended, it doesn’t clearly say whether there will be any future movies with any of these characters or not. Nor even if there will be another sequel in the Deadpool franchise itself. But having legacy sequels to those beloved Fox characters may be Marvel Studios’ way to have their cake and eat it too. Now I’m not suggesting more Wolverine sequels with Jackman while the MCU reboots the same character in their shared universe, which would absolutely be confusing. However, capitalizing on the interest and fan reaction of characters like Snipes’ Blade returning could allow for great standalone Elseworlds titles of those even more Marvel-Fox characters that never got a shot at an ending. Or in the case of Gambit, a beginning.
Seems like Ryan Reynolds feels the same, seeing how he is currently championing a Logan-like send-off to Snipes’ Blade character, seeing how Mahershala Ali’s MCU Blade refuses to take off the ground. And while having an MCU Elseworlds may seem unlikely, we also thought, many times, that Hugh Jackman was done playing Wolverine. So while additional movies and sequels or spinoffs of the Fox characters in the MCU seem unrealistic, almost everything that happens in Deadpool And Wolverine was unimaginable just a few short years ago. The Cavillrine, anyone? So anything is possible.
Deadpool And Wolverine is now playing in theatres.
What did you think about the Fox characters possibly being in the MCU? Let me know in the comments below. And follow me on X (formerly Twitter) at @theshahshahid for more MCU takes.
