Welcome to How Gay Is It? Out's review series where, using our state-of-the-art Eggplant Rating System, we determine just how queer some of pop culture's buzziest films and TV shows are! (Editor's note: this a spoiler-free review of 20th Century Studios & Marvel Studios' Deadpool & Wolverine.)
The Merc with a Mouth is back in Deadpool & Wolverine and boy howdy does he know how to use it. Ryan Reynolds returns as Wade Wilson and drags Hugh Jackman’s Logan along with him for a two-hour-and-seven-minute-long trip through meta madness. The last time we saw each of these spandexed studs was in 2018’s Deadpool 2 and 2017’s Logan respectively.
Since then Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, who had the rights to both characters, thus freeing them up to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If that sentence caused you to temporarily dissociate, then we’re going to go ahead and warn you that a lot of Deadpool & Wolverine is going to either go over your head or put you to sleep.
Our dynamic duo are forced to team up to right some multiversal wrongs. This brings them into contact with Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Paradox and Emma Corrin’s Cassandra Nova. What ensues is fourth wall breaking Vibranium violence. Reynolds and Jackman try to strike a balance between Deadpool’s hyper awareness of the self-referential narrative, and Wolverine’s signature brooding. For the most part, the two are able to find a flow, and their characters being from different universes helps give an in-story reason for the dissonance… but it doesn’t always come naturally.
Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios
It’s been a hot minute since we’ve seen any of the preceding films for these characters, and Deadpool & Wolverine anticipates that. It leans on considerable exposition (which in line with the previous Deadpool films) to point out necessary plot points and references. While this is in keeping with the source material style, it can still sometimes be a smidge grating and more like a crutch on screen. For the most part though, director Shawn Levy knows when things need to be dialed back. The one place they pull no punches? Making fun of their corporate overlords, for which we say kudos.
Plot and heart are not necessarily the leading things one thinks of when it comes to this franchise. While Deadpool & Wolverine tries to have Deadpool flirt with the earnestness of a Logan it never fully commits to those moments. While a necessary grounding element, of the three, this is probably amongst the flimsiest when it comes to really trying to ask the audience to invest emotionally. In fairness, this is the third of the trilogy, and while it may not count on you to remember larger plot specifics, it does bank on entrenched affinity for these characters.
As we mentioned earlier, if you are not familiar with the comings and goings of characters on screen in the MCU, the formerly Fox universe, AND the production and publicity surrounding them, then a considerable portion of this film is going to lack bite. Cameos and deep cuts abound. They attempt to make up for that with some tongue — Dogpool’s tongue that is. Broader moments (and a banging soundtrack) help try to band-aid the inside baseball nature of the script, but there’s a very specific audience for this film and it’s not necessarily a casual one.
Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios
Now the question that we at Out ask in every multiverse: How gay is it?! It’s a tease. Credit to the Deadpool franchise (pre-Disney) for already having featured a gay couple, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio. When it comes to Wade Wilson, one of his comic co-creators, Fabian Nicieza, has stated that “DP brain cells are in CONSTANT FLUX. He can be gay one minute, hetero the next, etc. ALL ARE VALID.” First film director Tim Miller and Reynolds (who serves as producer of the franchise) established the onscreen one as pansexual.
While there are plenty of expressed erotic espousing, and a lot of fighting as foreplay, this Deadpool film is pretty devoid of any bedroom action. Cruelty aimed at crotches? Of that there’s plenty, so actually we suppose for those who are into that this might rank as pretty sexy. However, for those of us with lower pain tolerances, it’s a shockingly tame film in the lust department (that’s about the only department it’s tame in).
In keeping with the comics, lots of the gay moments are played for laughs, but we didn’t feel they were being made with Wade’s sexual proclivities as the punchline. Though, again, this requires understanding and remembering that the first film outright featured a scene with him getting pegged (it’s at 24 minutes in, you’re welcome). There’s plenty of eye candy if you lust for lycra clad characters, and some fabulous dance moves (credit to Dancepool double Nick Pauley)
As a piece of fan service, we give it a 4.2 out of 5 (if you are not that invested in the comings and goings of on screen superheroes drop that score down a point). As for our patented Eggplant Scale, we’ll give it a solid 3 out of 5.
Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on Friday, July 26.
