Deadpool & Wolverinedeleted scenes would have retconned the officialMCUtimeline - but I still want to see them in the future.Assembled: The Making of Deadpool & Wolverineis now available to stream on Disney Plus alongsideDeadpool & Wolverineitself. The documentary provides a detailed look at the making of theMCU’s multi-record-breaking movieacross an hour. It mostly comprises interviews with the filmmakers and actors while also offering a peek at the filming process.
These interviews reveal howDeadpool & Wolverinewas molded in its earliest stages of development. Pitching the movie asDeadpool 3, before Hugh Jackman jumped aboard the process, one of the challenges faced by Reynolds and other filmmakers was working out how to suitablyintegrate Deadpool into the MCUand justify its existence as part ofthe main MCU timeline.Assembled: The Making of Deadpool & Wolverinereveals one idea was floated that could never have worked - not yet, anyway.
1 Deadpool 3 Movie Idea Would’ve Retconned The MCU Timeline
Deadpool & Wolverine’s Executive Producer Revealed An Interesting Early Concept For Deadpool 3
Early in the documentary,Deadpool & Wolverineexecutive producer, Wendy Jacobson, joins Reynolds in listing various concepts that were pitched to Marvel Studios. These included:
The last pitch that Jacobson revealed involvedretconning Deadpool into the main MCU timelineand revealing all of his scenes were deleted. Jacobson’s full quote is as follows:
“We had a ‘Deadpool’s Deleted Scenes Extravaganza.’ We were going to try and show that he was in the MCU the whole time, you just didn’t see his scenes, they were all on the cutting room floor.”
Jacobson clarified that this idea was contained in some of their notes,suggesting that it didn’t get very far off the ground. It ultimately fell to Hugh Jackman’s holiday-borne epiphany that he wanted to make a “Wolverine and Deadpool” movie that won everybody over on thecharacters' integration into the MCU. I’m glad he did for myriad reasons - but among the biggest is the fact that retconning Deadpool into the MCU just wouldn’t have worked.
Why The Deadpool 3 Deleted Scenes Extravaganza Idea Wouldn’t Have Worked
It’s Difficult To Understand What The Plot Would Have Been
It’s difficult to fathom how this version ofDeadpool 3would have comprised a compelling plot. Revisiting old MCU stories with Deadpool included might have been entertaining butfeels more like a standalone gag within a wider Deadpool movie. By contrast,Deadpool & Wolverinefelt like a solid continuation of Deadpool’s arc within Fox’s X-Men universe, deftly wielding the implications of the multiverse to at least partially integrate him into the MCU, albeit in realms distinct from the core movies' location in Earth-616.
Deadpool & Wolverineends with Deadpool remaining in Earth-10005, which is distinct from the MCU’s mainline universe.
I think this speaks to anotherquestion regarding why it would have been necessary to have had Deadpoolbe a core, albeit overlooked,member of the MCU’s cast. Doing so would have also meant explaining where the rest of theX-Men were in the MCUthroughout that time, given his ties to that franchise. Sure, it may have been explained by the same time-traveling MacGuffin that saw Deadpool being interviewed by Happy Hogan, but I can understand why the studio ultimately sidestepped the idea entirely given how difficult it would be to craft an entire movie around that.
How Marvel Can Still Pull Off A Major Deadpool MCU Timeline Retcon Montage
Marvel Can Still Use The Concept As A Montage In A Larger Movie
As I mentioned, having Deadpool traverse the MCU in a montage feels distinctly like a gag within a wider narrative. Thesuccess ofDeadpool & WolverinemeansDeadpool’s MCU returnis extremely likely - and, this time, we might even see him interact with other characters like Spider-Man. A rumored soft reboot of the MCU afterAvengers: Secret Wars, meanwhile, could see the myriad characters of the multiverse condense into a single universe in an emulation of Marvel Comics merging its disparate universes after 2015’sSecret Wars.
Incidentally, this could pay off the Thor tease, as the scene featuring Thor inDeadpool & Wolverinewas ripped straight fromThor: The Dark World.
Whether it’s inDeadpool 4or a future ensemble movie (that wouldn’t be tonally incompatible with such a gag), a montage integrating Deadpool into the MCU would make more sense as a consequence of these timelines merging. Incidentally, this could pay off the Thor tease, as the scene featuring Thor inDeadpool & Wolverinewas ripped straight fromThor: The Dark World. Finally, it would be a fitting homage to Deadpool’s time-traveling shenanigans in the post-credits scene ofDeadpool 2. With Deadpool missing from the MCU’s main events, I would very much enjoy a tongue-in-cheek retcon in this manner.
Deadpool & Wolverine
Cast
A follow-up to the highly successful Deadpool and Deadpool 2 films starring Ryan Reynolds as the Merc with a Mouth. The third film will be the first in the franchise to be developed under the Marvel Studios banner following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox.
