Deadpool 3 Will Ruin The MCU X-Men Before It Even Starts
Wade Wilson is finally gearing up to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The upcoming "Deadpool 3" will see Ryan Reynolds' sassy antihero bring his poor manners and trademark snark to a new corner of the multiverse. What's more, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) will be right alongside him, suggesting that the MCU is going to unleash the X-Men at long last.
Fans are buzzing. Theories are everywhere. Unfortunately, the mutants are at risk of being overshadowed by the Merc with a Mouth's crude lampooning.
Yes, Marvel fans have been desperately waiting for the X-Men to truly join the franchise ever since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019, and impatience is understandable, but here's the truth: "Deadpool 3" simply isn't the right time to start properly integrating the team with the MCU at large. And while it's near-guaranteed that we'll see at least a handful of cameos from the old 20th Century Fox iterations — say, Storm (Halle Berry) or Beast (Kelsey Grammer) — and less of a sure thing that "Deadpool 3" will start bringing in MCU versions, what's risky here is that even too much mockery of the old guard might spoil the broth for their replacements, before these replacements have a chance to be introduced. When you add in rumors of unproduced Fox Marvel projects getting cameos — hello, Channing Tatum's Gambit — it starts to feel like the successful multiversal mergings seen in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" are about to revert from a fun trend into a tired gimmick.
To put it simply: if "Deadpool 3" is anything like the Merc with a Mouth's first two films, the X-Men will become a laughing stock right before their new versions are supposed to be taken seriously.
Deadpool's lampooning risks undermining the X-Men's debut
Ryan Reynolds' "Deadpool" movies have established the Merc with a Mouth as the foul-mouthed, fourth-wall-breaking snarky pants that he is in comics. That's not going to change with his MCU debut. "Deadpool 3" will be rated R and will keep its protagonist's sensibilities intact, which is great news for "Deadpool" fans.
Unfortunately, it also means that the X-Men's big MCU debut — even if it's just the Fox versions getting intermingled with the MCU before the "real" MCU team arrives, ala Charles Xavier in "Multiverse of Madness" — won't be as impactful as it would be if the team were kept separate from Wade Wilson, and allowed to establish themselves elsewhere first. The debut of the X-Men in the MCU should be a big deal. They deserve a chance to shine as the cool heroes they are without being mocked and ridiculed. By pairing them up with Deadpool, though, they're going to get lampooned, as every character he encounters needs to be on the receiving end of his jokes.
Granted, this is fine in the "Deadpool" universe, which used to be a welcome alternative to the MCU and DCEU. Now that it's part of the former, though, we can probably expect an awkward clashing of styles that will do more harm than good.
Will Deadpool's meta-humor work in the MCU?
These days, the MCU is a Galactus-sized juggernaut that's completely devoured our pop culture landscape. This means that the franchise can afford to take weird risks, so admittedly, now is probably the best time to introduce Deadpool to the fold. However, the experiment also risks undoing the MCU's ability to suspend people's disbelief as the whole point of meta-humor is to acknowledge that what we're watching is fake.
The MCU has embraced meta-humor before: on "WandaVision," Wanda Maximoff (Elisabeth Olsen) is shocked to find out that her dead brother, Pietro (Evan Peters), has been "recast." But this type of meta-humor actually lends itself to the story, as "WandaVision" centers around a sitcom that takes place in Wanda's grief-stricken imagination. Such jokes tend to be subtle in the MCU, in sharp contrast to "Deadpool." The only exception thus far has been the Disney+ series "She-Hulk," which shattered the fourth wall in its final episode to humorous effect. Whether the finale of "She-Hulk" landed with viewers or not, though — a debate unto itself — it's fair to say that "Deadpool 3," as a theatrical project, will test these boundaries on a far bigger stage.
Putting Deadpool in the MCU is akin to letting a bull loose in a china shop — it might create chaotic short-term fun in the beginning, but is it really worth the mess when it's all said and done? The new "X-Men" films don't have to be completely serious, but they're an opportunity to explore interesting ideas that pertain to our times. These characters are synonymous with stories that address topics such as bigotry, prejudice, and justice. Deadpool's lampooning and self-referential jokes will overshadow the inherent storytelling potential of the mutants, and that will be a waste.
Let's talk about Channing Tatum's rumored Gambit cameo in Deadpool 3
The possibility of Gambit in "Deadpool 3" highlights these issues in a huge way.
Channing Tatum's "Gambit" movie is one of superhero cinema's greatest "what if...?" stories. It was supposed to be part of Fox's "X-Men" franchise back in the day, but the project was shelved following the Disney acquisition. Now, Tatum might get to play Gambit after all, as he is rumored to be joining the cast of "Deadpool 3."
Given that Tatum's "Gambit" project would have been part of Fox's "X-Men" franchise, it's safe to assume that he wouldn't be cast as the main MCU iteration of Remy LeBeau. His role would be similar to Nicolas Cage's cameo as Superman in "The Flash" — a quirky nod to an unproduced project that fans have dreamed of seeing for years. The difference is that Superman has had many, many onscreen iterations, so giving Cage a (brief) chance didn't greatly impact the character's future. Gambit, meanwhile, is a fan-favorite X-Men comics character who was largely ignored by the Fox films. His arrival in the MCU should be a big deal, and beating that debut to the punch with a silly Channing Tatum cameo risks undermining the character's future.
Yes, such a scene might be funny. But is it worth the loss of Gambit truly getting to shine in the MCU, as a major X-Men player, like he never did in the Fox universe? Sure, maybe the movie will incorporate its X-Men characters from various timelines into a great story that's as compelling as "Spider-Man: No Way Home." But honestly, it's more likely that they'll just be the butt of the Merc's wink-wink, nudge-nudge jokes, and that's a shame.