As we first told you earlier this week, The Hot Mic's Jeff Sneider recently shared his belief that the next Deadpool movie will follow Avengers: Secret Wars. That means it will arrive in theaters before both Black Panther 3 and the X-Men reboot.
After the Multiverse Saga's struggles, kicking off the next Saga with the sequel to a movie that grossed $1.3 billion isn't a bad business decision, especially as filmmaker Shawn Levy is expected to return.
Later, reliable insider @Cryptic4KQual confirmed that he, too, has heard about plans for Deadpool 4 to kick off the post-Secret Wars era of MCU storytelling, presumably meaning it would arrive in theaters on May 5, 2028.
As noted, we'd expected the next Saga to open with a new Black Panther movie or, if Marvel Studios was feeling particularly ballsy, X-Men. While both movies are likely to be box office hits, using them to set the tone for the future is risky. The Black Panther franchise would probably have a new T'Challa, who Marvel Studios will almost certainly introduce in the next Avengers movies.
Giving filmmaker Ryan Coogler a little more time to figure that story out isn't a bad thing, especially after he was forced to pivot in such a huge way with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. That went from being a father-son tale to mourning the late, great Chadwick Boseman after the actor's tragic passing.
As for X-Men, there's a tremendous amount of pressure to do right by the mutant team. While Jake Schreier delivered a critical hit with Thunderbolts*, it wasn't a commercial success. The Fantastic Four: First Steps also only turned a small profit, so Kevin Feige will be eager to make sure X-Men is the franchise starter the studio needs.
With that in mind, establishing the new status quo with Deadpool 4 is a smart move. It could introduce the new X-Men in cameo roles, or give us a glimpse into what their world looks like by focusing on an offshoot like X-Force. Rumour has it that the script Ryan Reynolds was working on is a team-up project, with the new Storm potentially part of it.
Wolverine and Cable have also been mentioned, and if there's a Multiversal element to the story, it could even bridge the gap between the old MCU and the new one (similar to how Spider-Man: Far From Home was an epilogue, of sorts, to Avengers: Endgame that explored a world without Iron Man).
As always, we'll have to wait and see. Either way, another R-rated Deadpool movie is far from a bad thing. There are more stories to be told with the Merc with the Mouth, and Wade Wilson being front and centre after Avengers: Secret Wars is an exciting prospect...