‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Scales New Heights of Cinematic Self-Awareness

The sheer density of clues, hints, callbacks, allusions, and Easter eggs in the promotional material for Deadpool & Wolverine is dizzying. Just watch any of the in-depth dissections of the Super Bowl teaser trailer, or the followup “Like a Prayer” trailer released on April 22, or the cluster of clips that Marvel released on May 20 when tickets went on sale. Or the “Lady Deadpool” trailer that went up just last week.

Fans have uncovered cameo appearances from dozens of characters from previous films. (These acolytes were convinced that they had proof that Jennifer Garner would return as Elektra based only on a few frames where you can supposedly see her legs and her elbow.) They pieced together the complex chronology of the story based on subtle changes in characters’ clothing from one shot to the next.

They spotted subtle differences between versions of the trailers released on different platforms—the one that Reynolds posted flashes a tiny QR code between Hugh Jackman’s legs at one point, and decoding it leads to a self-mocking disclaimer video. There are nods to Reynolds’ sports reality series Welcome to Wrexham and even a reference to the notorious fact that Rob Liefeld, the comic book creator who dreamed up Deadpool, struggles with drawing realistic feet.

To be sure, movie studios have long been tossing chum to hardcore superhero fans to whet their appetite for upcoming films. Over 35 years ago, a sizzle reel trailer for the first Tim Burton Batman film became a pop cultural sensation in its own right. (“The most talked-about ‘coming attraction’ in recent memory, it elicits applause and often cheers,” wrote Joe Morgenstern in a 1989 New York Times article.) Many superhero trailers have featured deep cuts that reward exhaustive knowledge of the source material. Marvel trailers in particular have been packed full of fanboy catnip ever since IP impresario Kevin Feige kickstarted the MCU with Iron Man.

“It’s been his bread and butter since 2008,” says Voss. “But Deadpool & Wolverine has taken it to a level that we haven’t seen before.”

The extreme self-awareness fits the material—Deadpool has always been a superhero who steps out of the story to make asides directly to the reader or viewer. “The character really lends itself to meta,” says Ben Fritz, the Wall Street Journal editor who created the podcast series With Great Power: The Rise of Superhero Cinema and wrote the book The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies.

The referentiality also fits the current pop-cultural mood. Superhero blockbusters as a whole are in their meta era, with crossovers from alternate universes and multiple versions of the same character cropping up all over the place.

Self-awareness has also long been key to Reynolds’ brand. The Deadpool franchise is when Reynolds first rebooted his career and reinvented himself as a master marketing genius who’s determined to let the audience in on the joke. Before he was crafting tongue-in-cheek viral ads for Mint Mobile and Aviation Gin, he got the greenlight from 20th Century Fox to make the Deadpool films in 2014 after some test footage was “accidentally” leaked to the web. It concludes with Reynolds riffing on the tagline to the forgettable 1980s Sly Stallone action flick Cobra, and saying hello to the studio executive who would ultimately allow the movie to move forward.

“Reynolds had this cavalier relationship with the fourth wall, and the Deadpool films have always been satires of every other superhero movie,” says Voss. Before Reynolds convinced Hugh Jackman to assume the role of Wolverine again in the latest film, he’d had his character Deadpool cut out Jackman’s portrait from People magazine’s sexiest man alive cover and wear it like a mask. Reynolds has openly stated that the new film will be making fun of Marvel’s parent company Disney, and at one point in the trailer, we even see the ruins of the iconic 20th Century Fox monolith.

These two studios themselves are inescapably part of the story of the new movie. The X-Men franchise and the vast mutantverse that Deadpool is part of were previously Fox properties, separate from the official Marvel Cinematic Universe. Disney acquired 21st Century Fox several years ago, and this film is the first one to fully mesh the mutantverse with the MCU. “Deadpool & Wolverine is Disney’s opportunity to transition; they’re trying to integrate all of these properties,” says Fritz.