With the impending arrival of mutants to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Deadpool will need to conform to Disney's plans for the X-Men. Ever since Marvel sold the X-Men movie rights to 20th Century Fox in 1993, the world's most famous team of genetic miracles hasn't had the chance to interact with the rest of Marvel's superheroes on the big screen. To the delight of many fans, that changed in 2019 when Disney bought Fox and all of its properties. Now, the long-awaited incorporation of mutants into the MCU is only a matter of time, with hints at their introduction somewhere along Phase 4. Fox's 20-year-old X-Men franchise raised the bar for future reinventions with key elements like Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Wolverine. As a result, the MCU needs to find innovative ways to depict the X-Men lore in a different style. Deadpool is a special case, as his two successful solo movies already existed on the fringes of Fox's franchise, but he still needs to adapt to the rules of the MCU if he wants to make a direct jump to the Avengers' home universe.

Beginning with early talks in 2004, Ryan Reynolds was already interested in bringing Deadpool to life more than a decade before his debut as the mutant mercenary. Some legal hurdles prevented further development, but Reynolds still pursued the role and played the character in 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The film got a poor reception, with the drastic changes made to Deadpool as one of the main targets of criticism. With no costume, no humor, and no mouth, the original Merc with a Mouth was nowhere to be seen, having been stripped of all the attributes that made his comic book counterpart famous. Fortunately for the character and the actor, a leaked piece of test footage in 2014 made the higher-ups at Fox understand the potential of a well-made, comical, and R-rated adaptation. An authentic Deadpool film became the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time in 2016, only surpassed by Deadpool 2 in 2018 and by Joker in 2019.

Related: How Marvel Phase 4 Is Already Incorporating X-Men Into The MCU

Disney's recent acquisition of Deadpool and the X-Men put an end to Fox's X-Men franchise with the perpetually-upcoming New Mutants as the final chapter. A future Deadpool 3 also fell in the hands of the Mouse, which led fans to wonder about the future of the character in the MCU. It's not a simple decision for Disney to release an R-Rated film centered on an insolent, self-aware antihero who comes from a different universe, but there are still ways to make it work.

There Are Currently No Official Plans for Deadpool in the MCU (But They Say They Want to Use Him)

Superimposed image of Deadpool standing in front of the Marvel Studios logo.

Although the current slate of upcoming MCU projects demonstrates a clear evolution from its previous 23-film-long Infinity Saga, with movies like Eternals exploring the uncharted corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Disney+ shows like Loki and WandaVision introducing a new form of storytelling, there are still no clear signs that Deadpool could be included among any of the announced titles in the rest of Phase 4. Even Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld has commented on Marvel's lack of plans for Deadpool 3, expressing his certainty that the sequel won't be on the MCU's list of priorities anytime soon. The absence of X-Men properties in the current slate suggests Deadpool would need to wait a considerable amount of time to appear if the mutants were to be introduced gradually. Logically, a Deadpool movie would stick out like a sore miniature hand between movies like Captain Marvel 2 and another sequel to an established title.

On the bright side, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige assured Disney won't change Deadpool. After all, the success of the previous two Deadpool movies is a huge incentive for Marvel to keep Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson as an active player in the MCU. This is not the first instance of a character struggling to fit in the plans for the franchise: the inclusion of Tom Holland's Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War is an achievement that very few could have deemed possible before the first trailer for the movie dropped, and the thought of Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) teaming up with Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) to fight Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Wakanda would have sounded like a fan's dream when the first Iron Man came out. All things considered, Deadpool's return to theaters doesn't seem as far-fetched as those ideas once were.

Deadpool 1 & 2 Couldn't Exist in the MCU

Deadpool 1, Deadpool 2, and Deadpool with the Avengers

One big obstacle that Disney has to sort out before moving forward with any plans for Deadpool's next appearance is his timeline. If the Deadpool that appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the same one from Fox's Deadpool and Deadpool 2, fans will inevitably wonder if Cable and Thanos (both played by Josh Brolin) exist in the same universe. Most importantly, they will wonder what happened to characters like Domino (Zazie Beetz) and Colossus (Stefan Kapičić). Again, if Marvel intends to introduce the X-Men characters gradually, this is the kind of challenge with continuity that will require creative workarounds. Deadpool's fourth-wall-breaking ability can make his interdimensional jump much more palatable, but leaving his previous adventures behind would be a disservice to their well-deserved success.

Related: Is Deadpool 2 On Netflix, Hulu Or Prime? Where To Watch Online

Luckily, Deadpool has dealt with similar circumstances before. The first two Deadpool movies were released after X-Men: Days of Future Past modified the Fox timeline, but the films took it as an advantage to make fun of how confusing the franchise had become, which helped the audience consider Deadpool as a standalone title instead of a spinoff. Also, depending on how the MCU's upcoming multiverse works, the original Deadpool movies could technically exist in a tangent dimension, just like The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths revealed Brandon Routh's Superman and Tom Welling's Clark Kent lived in neighboring timelines. What's more, the MCU multiverse could integrate all of the previous X-Men movies as peripheral universes. This way, Disney can avoid mixing up its family-friendly content with the R-rated Deadpool movies while sparing their existence.

Deadpool Might Work Better as a Side Character

Deadpool on a floatie in the Avengers Endgame Final Battle

Releasing a PG-13 Deadpool movie, even with every other aspect of the previous movies kept intact, would inevitably feel like a downgrade. A big part of what makes Deadpool so popular is his profanity and humorous violence. Scenes like the execution of Ajax (Ed Skrein) and Juggernaut ripping Deadpool in half are precisely what made the first two movies stand apart from the PG-13 nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and propelled them to success. The absence of moments like these in Deadpool 3 would be difficult to ignore and even more difficult to substitute. So, to avoid drawing attention to Deadpool's lack of R-rated content and the possible absence of his previous teammates, his role in the MCU could fit better as a side character. This doesn't mean that he should be glossed over or that his importance should be diminished - just that his interaction with other characters could take the prominence over his R rating. It also goes in line with the method of introducing single members of the X-Men before their MCU team-up, which helps differentiate Disney's X-Men from Fox's.

Making Deadpool a side character is the same technique Marvel used to overcome the complicated share of Hulk's rights with Universal. By making the Hulk a team player, the MCU was able to develop him throughout the Avengers movies and Thor: Ragnarok. Despite the potential success of a second solo movie, Mark Ruffalo's portrayal of Bruce Banner and his famous alter ego had a much better reception than the failed The Incredible Hulk. Deadpool can benefit from the same treatment. Having Deadpool in MCU's PG-13 team-ups alleviates the issues of the R-rating, but it also provides plenty of possibilities for his development at his new home universe. He can meet with the Avengers, join the eventual creation of the X-Men, and even pay a visit to the Guardians of the Galaxy. One facet that the first two Deadpool movies lacked was his meta-commentary on the rest of the Marvel universe (limited to the X-Men back then), and this is the perfect chance to explore it for the first time.

The introduction of Deadpool in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a tricky one, but the unique qualities of Ryan Reynolds' slightly crazier persona can make him the most interesting arrival out of all the X-Men. Deadpool's idiosyncratic appearances in the least expected comic book pages can be translated as a side character role in the MCU. Knowing him, even a cameo somewhere in the DCEU wouldn't seem out of character. Deadpool can regenerate from a nuclear bomb - he surely can recover from a change of cinematic universes.

More: MCU Theory: Cable's Avengers Tech In Deadpool 2 Brings In X-Men

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