Nerds all over the world have sharpened their proverbial katanas and claws as the much-anticipated Marvel matchup, Deadpool and Wolverine, has hit theaters worldwide. In his third cinematic venture and his official entry to MCU, the regenerating degenerate has not only gotten his much-desired partnership with Logan but also got to punch way above his weight by saving the multiverse. With both antiheroes finding themselves entangled in TVA’s temporal and spatial shenanigans, and prime antagonist Cassandra Nova, with her extremely powerful telepathic/telekinetic abilities, endangering the very existence of the multiverse itself, Deadpool and Wolverine‘s ending was crucial for the MCU’s overarching narrative and for the lead duo’s personal arc as well.
Spoilers Ahead
Were Deadpool and Wolverine Able To Save The Multiverse?
The central crisis in Deadpool and Wolverine stemmed from the death of Earth-10005’s version of Wolverine, who sacrificed his life in “Logan,” and being an anchor being of his universe, his death creates a ripple effect strong enough to send his universe to its inevitable annihilation. However, the crooked TVA agent Paradox had decided to accelerate the procedure of decimation by creating a ‘Time Ripper,’ and in order to avert the catastrophe, Deadpool from Earth-10005 brought a replacement Wolverine by scouring through the multiverse. The duo got pruned by the TVA Minutemen to Void, a cosmic wasteland where unwanted variants of prime characters are discarded, and met the diabolical, psychopathic ruler of the Void, Cassandra Nova. According to the deal Cassandra had made with TVA, she ruled the Void in exchange for handing over any rogue variants to Alioth, the interdimensional guardian being of the Void. However, Paradox deemed her too unstable and made a secretive deal with Pyro, one of her mutant lackeys, to eliminate her at the right moment. After Deadpool and Wolverine, along with their new associates, the Others, engaged in battle with Cassandra, Pyro turned on her and shot Cassandra when her powers were nullified. However, Wolverine decided to spare her life, prompting Cassandra to let him and Deadpool go to Earth-10005 as they had wished to.
Learning about Paradox’s treachery and his plan to use the Time Ripper to hasten the end of the doomed universes, a vengeful Cassandra decided to turn the entire multiverse to Void by amplifying the Time Ripper’s capabilities with her powers and arrived on Earth-10005, where Paradox’s TVA outpost had nearly activated the device. Cassandra tortured Paradox for a while before taking control of the Time Ripper, and Deadpool and Wolverine arrived at the outpost after battling a horde of Deadpools of the multiverse. With the situation completely out of control, Paradox has no option but to reveal to the anti-hero duo that the only way to stop Cassandra from destroying the multiverse is to cause a short-circuit by connecting the Time Ripper’s positive matter and anti-matter flows, but the process will erase them from existence irrespective of their extremely accelerated healing factors. The duo take the chance nevertheless and manage to destroy the Time Ripper, ending the threat to the multiverse as Cassandra is erased from existence. However, Deadpool and Wolverine emerge unscathed, and although the reasoning for their survival isn’t clear, keeping in sync with Deadpool’s meta humor, we will chalk it up to them having narrative immunity for being the leads of the movie. Hunter B-15, the present chief of TVA operations, who had noticed an unauthorized activation of the Time Ripper in Earth-10005, arrives at the TVA outpost and, after learning everything that has transpired so far, takes Paradox into custody and decides to show mercy to the new hero of the multiverse, Deadpool, by sparing his universe from being obliterated.
As for this version of Wolverine, who was a disgraced anti-hero in his universe, due to his actions leading to the end of mutants and his vengeance getting even more humans killed, Deadpool requests B-15 to alter the past to let Wolverine have a chance to start his life anew. However, B-15 pulls a Batfleck (The Flash) at this point by mentioning that the tragedies made Wolverine the person he is today, so it would be unwise to change that. So no re-do for Wolverine, but later, Deadpool decides to bring Wolverine and Laura (from the Others) into his extended family to show his gratitude. Both Laura and Wolverine ended up being discarded from their respective universes, and now they have a chance to form a father-daughter bond like their prime versions, or most other variants have had. It is hinted that Deadpool and Wolverine will help the TVA to protect the multiverse from here onwards, although it isn’t made clear whether Loki being at the center of the multiverse has anything to do with these events.
What Happened to the Others?
The heroes from different parts of the multiverse—Wesley Snipes’ version of Blade, Jennifer Garner’s version of Elektra, and Channing Tatum’s version of Gambit, which didn’t even get a chance to feature in any movie—were the associate heroes who helped Deadpool and Wolverine take the battle to Cassandra Nova—and they too were pruned out by TVA from their respective universes, much like Laura and the deceased Johnny Storm played by Chris Evans. Deadpool honors their assistance by putting in a good word for them to B-15 by asking her to send them home, and his request is granted. Does this mean we are going to see more of these characters in upcoming MCU ventures? With “Secret Wars” already in production, there is a strong possibility of their return in the future.
In Deadpool and Wolverine‘s post-credits scene, a funny scenario follows as Deadpool proves from a TVA video recording that he was telling Cassandra Nova the truth when he mentioned Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm, the loudmouth hero Human Torch, foulmouthed Cassandra throughout their journey together. Well, Deadpool’s truth cost poor Johnny his life as Cassandra flayed him on spot, which will remind viewers of prime timeline Earth-616’s Captain America’s (played by Chris Evans as well) warning about language.
