Yahoo Lifestyle All the 'Deadpool & Wolverine' Easter Eggs Fans Missed
Deadpool isn't like other Marvel characters. In addition to his regenerative healing, he has another huge super power: the ability to understand that he's in a comic-book movie, which lets him break the fourth wall and make lots of jokes about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and its related franchises. So, really, he's a walking reference machine. In that way, it's hard to understand where Deadpool himself ends and the Easter eggs begin. They're just so ingrained into his personality that every line out of his mouth can be considered some kind of nod to the wider comic-book related entertainment world.
The flip side of that is that it doesn't matter if you're a die-hard comics fan, an authority in all things X-Men, a Marvel movie buff or a casual filmgoer — at some point, Deadpool is going to drop a reference that you can understand. (Case in point: I am definitely more of a movie-watcher than a comics-reader, and I was able to get a lot of the jokes.) These Deadpool & Wolverine Easter eggs show Deadpool at what he does best, which is poking fun at the whole behind-the-scenes machinery (while throwing a lot of bad words, action sequences and gore in the mix).
If you don't follow the business of comic book movies, here's something to understand first: Not every Marvel movie, or movie with a Marvel character, is part of the MCU due to ongoing negotiations with the rights for the characters. While the famous Marvel Studios movies are owned by Disney, a lot of other characters were owned by 20th Century Fox, which put out Deadpool, Deadpool 2, a few tries at The Fantastic Four, and all of the X-Men movies. (Sony, on the other hand, had the rights to Spider-Man.) Then, in 2019, Disney bought 20th Century Fox, which is how all of those Fox characters can now be mixed into the Deadpool soup (and presumably future MCU projects), which is the butt of a lot of Deadpool's jokes. Onward to see our favorites. And if you need more, check out the Deadpool 2 Easter eggs you may have missed too.
This article contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine. You've been warned, Bub.
The Core of the Deadpool Corps
Most of the Marvel projects of late have focused around the idea of a multiverse, where there are other universes that feature variant versions of the same character. And just like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse showed us all the various Spideys out there, in Deadpool & Wolverine, Deadpool meets some of his own counterparts, like Nicepool (who is like Deadpool, but more Canadian), Ladypool, Kidpool, Babypool and Dogpool (aka Mary Puppins). Deep in the crowd of the Deadpool Corps, there are some deep cuts that may be known only to comics fans, like Zenpool, Watari and the futuristic Deadpool 2099. But it can't stop there. Deadpool is nothing if not meta, and to add another layer to the joke, there are some famous voices behind these red suits:
The voice of Ladypool is provided by Ryan Reynolds's wife, Blake Lively. She's also invoked via a NSFW Gossip Girl joke earlier in the film.
Remember how I said Nicepool was like Deadpool but more Canadian? Even though he's played by Ryan Reynolds, the credited actor is Gordon Reynolds.
The kids get in the act, too. Inez Reynolds is the voice of Kidpool, and Olin Reynolds is the voice of Babypool. James Reynolds is credited as "screaming mutant," which could really apply to all kids.
The voice of the western Cowboypool? It's Matthew McConaughey.
The dismembered floating zombie head, Headpool, has the voice of Nathan Fillion, who co-starred with Ryan Reynolds on Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place.
"Welshpool"may go by in a flash, but he's voiced by Paul Mullin, an athlete on the Wrexham team, which is co-owned by Reynolds and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Rob McElhenney. McElhenney also makes a cameo not as a Deadpool Corps member, but as a member of the Time Variance Authority (TVA).
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The Worst Wolverine, and Alternative Options
As the movie's title suggests, Deadpool's unlikely partner in this adventure is Logan, aka the Wolverine, and — as Deadpool says repeatedly — fans have been waiting decades for Logan to show up in the MCU. So it's a shame, then, that they only get "the worst Wolverine." Oh well. At least he wears a yellow and blue suit (and sometimes a mask), just like he does in some of the comics and X-Men: The Animated Series.
The worst Wolverine is obviously not Deadpool's first choice of partner. As he hops around the multi-verse looking for a willing Logan, he also runs across these variant Wolverines:
A Wolverine whose height is more accurate to the comics — a "short king," as it were — who is 5'3" as opposed to Hugh Jackman's normal height of 6'2".
A Wolverine that's lashed to an X-shaped cross on a pile of skulls. It's a reference to the cover of The Uncanny X-Men #251.
Old Man Logan, who looks more like a Clint Eastwood character (with a poncho and a leathery face) than a Wolverine. It's said that the movie Logan was inspired by the Old Man Logan comics. The Logan Wolverine shows up, too, but mostly as an Adamantium skeleton.
A Wolverine wearing a brown and yellow suit. Deadpool mentions that it's the outfit he wore when he fought The Hulk, a reference to The Incredible Hulk #340.
A Wolverine wearing an eye patch. This is Logan's alter-ego, Patch, who likes to play cards in the fictional country of Madripoor.
A Wolverine with a black and red suit who has a metal hand. This is the Logan from the Age of Apocalypse comics (not to be confused with the X-Men: Apocalypse movie).
A Wolverine who, unlike all the others, is played by Henry Cavill. This is a nod to a fan desire to pull Cavill from the DC Universe into the MCU. Deadpool even makes a joke about how this studio would treat him better than his previous one, making reference to the way Cavill's role as Superman in the DCEU was unceremoniously re-cast.
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Non-Avengers, Assemble!
Deadpool and Wolverine can't achieve their goals on their own, either. The TVA sends them to a place called the Void, a Mad Max Fury Road-like universe which happens to be populated almost entirely by discarded franchise characters. There, they put together a team of former heroes looking for closure. The lineup includes:
Elektra, played by Jennifer Garner, from the 2005 movie Elektra. When Deadpool laments that Daredevil couldn't be there with her, she shrugs it off, making a joke of Garner's real-life divorce from Daredevil star Ben Affleck. (Deadpool also talks about how there were so many Punishers, which, fair.)
Laura, aka X-23, the kid version of Wolverine who features heavily in 2017's Logan. She still sports the sunglasses she wore in that film. (Dafne Keen. who plays X-23 in both Logan and Deadpool & Wolverine, stayed in the Disney family this year to play Jecki Lon, my favorite Padawan on The Acolyte. Jecki stans, let's huddle up!)
Blade, played by Wesley Snipes. He gets the meta jokes this time around. First, he has a quip that he will be the only Blade, a reference to Marvel's struggle to reboot the franchise with Mahershala Ali. He also tells Deadpool, "I don't like you," and Deadpool responds, "You never did," which winks at the rumors that Snipes and Reynolds didn't get along on the set of Blade: Trinity. (Snipes also gets to say one of Blade's most famous lines, which I cannot reprint here because this is a family publication.)
Gambit shows up, too. You'd expect him to be played by Taylor Kitsch, who stepped into the role of Remy LeBeau in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Nope! Instead, it's Channing Tatum, who never played Gambit on film but famously always wanted to.
And though he doesn't join their team, Chris Evans shows up to re-play one of his famous comic book roles. No, not that one. He's Johnny Storm from 2005's Fantastic Four — not to be confused with the 1994 Johnny Storm (Jay Underwood, the movie was unreleased), or 2015's Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan, who came back to the Marvel world as the Black Panther villain Killmonger). The jokes about how Marvel has recycled actors into different roles seemed well timed, because this weekend Marvel made an announcement at this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con that Robert Downey, Jr., is returning to the MCU — as Dr. Doom, the villain in an upcoming Avengers film that will debut a new Fantastic Four cast.
To Me, My X-Men Villains
The main villain down in The Void is Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), twin of Charles Xavier who has not really had a big role in the movies so far. Her henchmen, though, are full of X-minions from the Fox movies. They include:
Pyro (Aaron Stanford), who played a big role in X2.
Sabretooth (Tyler Mane), from the first X-Men. The role was also played by Liev Schreiber in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but sadly Schriber does not make an appearance in the Void.
Juggernaut, The Blob, Azazel, Lady Deathstrike, Callisto and Psylock are also there, but not played by actors from the other movies. Quicksilver is mentioned, but not pictured. (For those with true eagle eyes, you might even spot a Russian Punisher enemy, because why not?)
And Cassandra's Void foil is a the great Alioth, which, though not a mutant, was introduced the first season of Loki.
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Enduring Objects
Yes, there are Easter eggs that don't make any wisecracks! Because they're inanimate objects. Keep one eye on the background, and you're likely to spot these props:
Happy Hogan has several in his office, including the Captain America shield prototype from Iron Man 2, Tony Stark's Iron Man helmet and arc reactor (with the "proof that Tony has a heart" inscription), the issue of Forbes magazine with Pepper Potts on the cover and a picture of Stark and Peter Parker, which is cleverly covered up by a toy Iron Man mask that once belonged to Peter.
There are also lots of discarded objects to be found in the Void. Littered along the wasteland, you can find Thor's helmet, Hydra Captain America's shield, a Chitauri Leviathan corpse from The Avengers, part of the castle of Asgard that was destroyed in Thor: Ragnarok, a statue of Wanda Maximoff from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and, uh, the 20th Century Fox logo.
The vehicles in the Void, too, may look like they're straight out of Mad Max, but the fleet includes the Red Skull's car from Captain America: The First Avenger, the ice cream truck from Moon Knight, Deadpool's Chimichanga truck, Thanos's Black Order Q-ship, the oft-used S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier, the Guardians of the Galaxy's ship and the Fantastic Four's Fantasticar.
Cassandra Nova's lair is located inside the skull of a giant Ant-Man. ("Paul Rudd finally aged.") I'm sure he died heroically. Inside, she's also sitting on Thanos's chair (and wielding Dr. Strange's ring and cape). To fight her, our dynamic duo take hold of a Sentinel's foot.
Not quite objects, in the Void there are also alien-looking creatures, Narvas, from Loki.
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Breaking the Fourth Wall
Deadpool is known to acknowledge reality outside the movie universe. Here are some of the jokes he gets in at the expense of real life:
Jennifer Garner isn't the only one whose divorce is poked fun at in the movie. When referring to Wolverine, Deadpool says, "He's usually shirtless, but he's let himself go since the divorce," referencing Hugh Jackman's real-life divorce from Deborra-Lee Furness, his wife of 30 years.
That's not the only time Jackman's life bleeds into the Deadpool & Wolverine script. Deadpool also threatens to have Cassandra Nova subjected to the libretto of The Music Man, and when they get in the Honda Odyssey together, you can hear music from The Greatest Showman.
Not to be outdone, some of Reynolds's less heralded works come up in conversation, including Van Wilder (calling Nicepool "Van Milder") and The Proposal (which was a Deadpool-sized hit in its day, so no shade).
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige comes up a lot. It's at his insistence that certain drug references stay out of the movie (although Deadpool and his roommate come up with some creative work-arounds), and there's a pizza box from a restaurant called Feige's Famous Pizza.
When they're back at Deadpool's home world, a big sequence unfolds in front of a store called Liefeld's Just Feet. This is a reference to Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld, who is apparently known for not being able to draw feet.
Marvel guru Stan Lee is pictured on an ad on the side of a bus. RIP, Stan!
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And an Egg That Hasn't Hatched
When Deadpool visits the TVA (where he runs into Loki's B-15 eventually), he gets to see lots of different timelines and possible futures via a bank of TV screens. In one of them, Deadpool sees Thor holding him and crying. Paradox says it's only a glimpse at a possible future. But is it a hint at what's to come in Avengers: Secret Wars? We'll have to wait until it comes out in 2027 to find out.
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