THE SUPER-ODD COUPLE

DEADPOOL IS BACK AND HE'S NOW A BONA FIDE MEMBER OF THE MCU WITH WOLVERINE ALONG FOR THE RIDE. TOTAL FILM SPEAKS TO FRIENDS FROM WORK RYAN REYNOLDS, HUGH JACKMAN AND DIRECTOR SHAWN LEVY ABOUT JOINING THE BIG LEAGUES, RESURRECTING WOLVERINE, AND HOW DEADPOOL MAY BE MARVEL'S MESSIAH BUT HE'S STILL A VERY NAUGHTY BOY....

- ELLALATIPE

Wade Wilson goes by many names: Deadpool, The Merc with a Mouth, The Regenerating Degenerate and now… Marvel Jesus. Not only is he the self-proclaimed messiah and saviour of the MCU, but he has also performed his own miracle – the resurrection of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.

Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy admits that – post strikes and alongside a widely reported epidemic of superhero fatigue meaning it’s the only comic-book film of the summer – positioning Deadpool as the potential saviour of the MCU has particular resonance. ‘I would love to take credit for those parallels,’ Levy tells Total Film. ‘Some we absolutely intend, but some are coincidences, and we came up with “Marvel Jesus” two years ago.’ But Levy isn’t concerned that people won’t show up for future MCU instalments: ‘People love to get on bandwagons whether they’re positive, but frankly even more when they’re negative.’

Six years after Deadpool 2, we are reacquainted with our crimson-suited hero. He’s proving to be useless at selling cars, hawking Blind Al’s (Leslie Uggams) bloodpressure meds to make rent, and his beloved Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) has a new boyfriend. But despite insisting to his pal Peter (Rob Delaney) that he’s over the whole superhero thing, when the Time Variance Authority come a-knockin’, after just a few minutes with Matthew Macfadyen’s TVA agent Paradox explaining how he is needed to protect the Sacred Timeline, Deadpool can’t resist stepping up to the plate with a joyful, ‘Suck it, Fox, I’m going to Disneyland!’