Deadpool & Wolverine is Marvel Studios' only 2024 movie; had last year's Hollywood strikes not happened, then the Merc with the Mouth and Logan would have been joined by Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*.
Instead, those now join The Fantastic Four in 2025 (along with Blade - LOL) and the pressure is on the Deadpool threequel to "save" the MCU's Multiverse Saga.
Talking to Total Film, Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy commented on the pressure that places on this movie. "We had no idea it would be this unique moment where people are asking what the MCU means any more," the filmmaker says. "Can it surprise us? Can it break molds in ways that we don't expect? We certainly hope that this movie is an answer to those questions."
"What Kevin Feige has built with the MCU is historic as far as a string of successes, but culture has its tide chart, culture has ebbs and flows, and one thing we do know is you can't keep doing the same thing ad nauseum and expect people to greet it with the same excitement," Levy adds. "And so it just worked out really fortuitously because our movie is not like any MCU movie. Yeah, and I say that as a fan of a lot of MCU movies."
We're already hearing that Deadpool & Wolverine will break box office records, while a confirmed day-and-date release in China all but guarantees a global bow of as much as $500 million.
Whether the threequel will reignite interest in the MCU remains to be seen, though for Levy, he was just focused on making a great movie. "I would love to take credit for those parallels. Some we absolutely intend, but some are coincidences, and we came up with 'Marvel Jesus' two years ago. People love to get on bandwagons whether they're positive, but frankly even more when they're negative."
Marvel Studios clearly has faith in Levy's vision as it was recently reported that he's the frontrunner to helm Avengers 5. Deadpool & Wolverine is expected to lead straight into that movie, while we've heard that a condition of Hugh Jackman's return was that he gets to appear alongside heroes like Iron Man and Spider-Man in a future project.
Back to this movie, though, and it becoming a $1 billion hit that "saves" the MCU seems likely...providing it lives up to expectations, of course.
Deadpool & Wolverine arrives in theaters on July 26.