ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - What’s DEADPOOL’s Mission for the TVA in DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE?

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

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This is your chance to be a hero among heroes. Hey, welcome back Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie. So what is Deadpool's mission in Deadpool and Wolverine? The trailer shows him getting recruited by the TVA, but we don't actually learn what for. Now, in our breakdown video, I speculated that they had asked Wade together a bunch of variants from across the multiverse, but maybe I was wrong. A little later, I'm going to be joined by Colton Ogburn and former Deadpool Comics editor Heather Antos for their thoughts. But first, I want to tell you my theory. And later, I'm going to tell you how all this connects perfectly to the other Deadpool movies

and gives this trilogy the tragic, happy ending it deserves. And I have a huge announcement to make. We have two brand new Deadpool parody shirts for sale at our merch store, Screencrushmerch.com. Can you tell me how to get to the MCU with Wade and Logan as a parody of Bert and Ernie? And the I'm the MCU Jesus shirt inspired by this line from the trailer. I am Marvel Jesus. At Screencrushmerch.com, guys, we design all the merch ourselves. and shopping our merch store really helps out our channel

and lets us make videos like this one. We also have our very first live show coming up next week in Brooklyn, New York. We're almost sold out, so get your tickets for that in the link below. So in our breakdown video, I did speculate that Deadpool is being sent to recruit a team of heroes to save the multiverse from incursions. Now, I thought this because we see what looks like two variants of Wolverine, him as Patch in Madrepoor and him in the yellow suit at the end of the trailer. But this is also very similar to the Guardians of the Multiverse that we saw in the show,

What If? So that got me thinking. They probably don't want to just repeat what they've already done in an animated show. So I want to throw out a different theory. The TVA has hired way to be an assassin. Remember, in the first season of Loki, the TVA was enforcing the sacred timeline, pruning potential branches that would have created evil variants of Kang. But following Loki season two, they have shifted their mission more into Kang management.

I guess one of them caused a little bit of a ruckus on 616 adjacent realm, but they handled it. So we're all good for now. So what's the big problem the TVA is now? encursions. Read, take it away. An incursion occurs when the boundary between two universes erodes and they collide, destroying one or both entirely. So incursions are what caused all the multiverse to be destroyed prior to the 2015 Secret Wars comic event. And we think that's what the TVA is going to be fighting against right now. The timelines are allowed to grow in branch, but multiverse

of madness established that when a character travels between universes, they are endangering those universes. So Stephen Dreamwalking caused an incursion. You caused an incursion. Wanda Dreamwalking, incursion. Strange Supreme, messing with time, huge incursion. Even Miles Morales, crossing between universes without a little bracelet and disrupting canon events, caused an incursion. It's a metaphor for capitalism. Now, the best way to stop an incursion is just to prune the timeline so the rot doesn't continue to spread through the tree. But in season two of Loki, Loki sacrifices himself specifically to preserve these timelines, so the TVA will no longer prune trillions of people from existence just because it's convenient.

So what do they do now if they're not allowed to prune timelines? Well, I'm glad you asked. The TVA is going to have a tough time transitioning away from breaking its timeline pruning habit. Or I used to have a bad habit too, rolling around in dead birds. I remember super gross, and that was part of my bad oral fixation habit. But now I've replaced that bad gross habit with a positive one by using fume. They're the sponsor of this video. Is that a vape?

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That's tryfum.com and use the code screen crush to save an addition. 10% off on your order today. So now back to Deadpool. The TVA is in a really tough spot. They can no longer prune timelines, but people on those timelines are causing universes to end. Remember, we learned about this in Loki season one. The choices people make are what causes timeline to branch and what's called nexus events. So what do they do? They hire an immortal assassin, Deadpool. Deadpool can go into any universe and prune an individual before they cause that timeline to branch. And maybe in exchange, the TVA says to Wade that they will prevent his universe from dying. So then why does Wade turn against?

them. Sorry? Well, yeah, in the trailer, we see Deadpool fighting other TVA guys. Why is he doing that? I'm glad you asked. I think that they sent him to kill someone, a variant of somebody he loves. He might be sent to kill a variant of Vanessa or one of his friends. Or maybe they sent him to kill a variant of himself. I have a theory on why that would be even more gut-riching that I'll talk about a little bit later. But first, Heather Antos, you know more about Deadpool than basically anyone I know. You actually worked on Deadpool comics. So if anybody knows what Wade Wilson's mission is, it's going to be you. What do you think is going on here? Oh, my gosh, it's so much pressure.

I don't know. I really got a lot of Deadpool Kills and Marvel Universe vibes, not only from this trailer, but also from the teaser sequence at the end of Deadpool 2. And if we recall the teaser sequence at the end of Deadpool 1, he very much gave away, like, it's going to be cable in this next film. And at the end of Deadpool 2, we see him hopping around timelines, whatever, killing, you know, all these characters or meta things in the past, which is very much what goes on in Deadpool kills the Marvel Universe.

And I don't think that's the overall plot of Deadpool Wolverine, but I very much am getting those feelings from that trailer. Heather, can you remind everybody, you don't have to go into every detail, and I haven't read this comic in years. Can you remind us what Deadpool kills the Marvel Universe is? Um, so Deadpool kills the Marvel universe, uh, is, is the comic. Uh, no, so Deadpool, uh, it's an alternate universe, Deadpool who gets abducted, um, and a psychiatric word and, um, all of the funny yellow caption voice boxes and has had disappear and get replaced with, with a bloodthirsty, uh, caption box and he goes around and brutally murders all your favorite characters, Iron Man Punisher, She Hulk, you know, yada, yada, yada, yada. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. And then it, it's a lot of fun. And then it, it It morphs from there. Deadpool Kill Illustrated.

Deadpool kills the Marvel Universe again, where I personally get murdered by Deadpool in that comic. Oh, that's nice. Okay. So what was Deadpool Kill's Deadpool in that comic book? Very emo. He's trying to figure out how to rid himself from all of his pain and all of his misery. Everyone hates him.

He just wants to be a good guy and he keeps messing up. similar to the themes we get in in the movies where you know he's constantly in pain his body is constantly regenerating cancer cells and healing from it and he feels every bullet shot he feels everything constantly and he's done he's over it he's he's he's had it he's had enough and he's trying to figure out a way to to you know uh kill Deadpool so with all that as background then looking at Deadpool and Wolverine And do you think that, you know, I talked earlier, like, I think he's going to be going around sent on assassination missions. Do you think the TVA is sending him out to just full-on kill universes?

Or how's that going to adapt into that? You know, it's really interesting. We've talked about this in your previous videos. You've mentioned, like, nexus points, right? We talked about that a lot when we had the Loki talkbacks. And Deadpool being such a fourth wall breaker, a meta-character. I truly, truly believe he's one of these nexus points. It wouldn't surprise me if he is the only, you know, Wade Wilson in all of the different universes.

And so I think, you know, the TVA might first be after him because he has this time travel device from Cable and he's, you know, probably messing things up, doing it, dancing around. Causing incursions. As Wade Wilson has wanted to do. But I also think that because of his. his immortality because of his cellular regeneration, he might be able to not necessarily stop incursions, but survive incursions or survive longer in incursions and might be able to retrieve certain characters or retrieve certain artifacts from these alternate timelines and universes that, you know, someone else might not able to survive as we saw in Loki season two. Yeah, it's cool because I remember, you know, it'd be neat. Remember at the end of Loki season two when, And we see what it kind of looks like from the inside of a universe that's being destroyed. Like in quantum mania, we saw them get like it snuffed out by Kang.

But like we see them kind of rot and turn into spaghetti. It'd be so cool to see a scene where Wade Wilson is in the middle of that. And he's just kind of like in the middle of it, you know? So Heather is a group editor of licensing at IDW. Thanks for all that. Colton, what about you? What do you think Wade's mission is going to be here? Heather mentioned fourth wall breaks. You got any thoughts there?

Yeah, mine is a little out there. I think Heather is on to something with the Deadpool kills the Marvel universe. I think that is what the TVA wants him to do. The TVA, you know, it's like the watcher in a sense, right? They're a fourth dimensional like being type place. They can see all of time and space at once, but what they can't see is what lies like beyond. a fourth dimension, aka, like, beyond a fourth wall. But who can see beyond that fourth wall is Deadpool. So I think they are recruiting Deadpool for his, like, ability to see what they can't see.

And maybe they even, like, plan to experiment to on Deadpool. That goes in, you know, cool with the whole mutant thing. Mutants always getting experimented on and stuff in the comics. And maybe they're trying to, like, harness that ability for themselves. This ability that Wade Wilson has to see beyond the fourth. fourth dimension. And I also think that the TVA is specifically pruning Fox era X-Men universes because I think the overlord, Kevin, who we meet in Sheehulk, and who exists beyond that fourth dimension, I think he has written it to be that way because he, as the overseer of

Marvel Studios, he wants to incorporate the X-Men into the MCU. We even heard them touch on that in She-Hulk. When are we getting the X-Men? I cannot tell you that. Yeah. Oh, and also we saw Deadpool Comics in She-Hulk in those like panels in that room. Yeah. So I think that's what they're going for. And I don't know that the TVA even knows like why they're having to prune these universes. I think they just know that there is a threat beyond this fourth dimension beyond the fourth wall and that they need to prune certain universes in order to survive. But I think that what Kevin wants is for Deadpool to be in the MCU because he's a very popular character. The way Kevin talked about the MCU, you can tell he's very proud of his creation.

So perhaps he's wanting the TVA to pull Deadpool out before destroying all the Fox era universes so he can reboot them and bring them into the MCU. And I think that's the plan with Deadpool is to bring him out, save him from the pruning, and perhaps send Deadpool unknowingly to kill these Fox era universes. But then when Deadpool catches on, he's like, I don't want to do that. I don't want to kill my universe. That's where my people are. Maybe we see Deadpool get pruned, and that's why he's there in the void with the other Fox era characters.

And then he gets Wolverine, and maybe they go to war with the TVA. We saw him killing TVA agents. So that's my theory. Yeah, and a little bit later I'm going to talk about specifically a person, I think, Deadpool is getting sent to prune that might turn him against the TVA. So love that theory. You bring up a really good question, and this is where, you know, Heather, I want to hear your thoughts on this because you worked on the Deadpool comics and you guys had to find a way

to address this. Breaking the fourth wall, right? So in Rick and Morty, Rick breaks the fourth wall all the time. You know, it's a comedy, though, but Rick and Bordy is also a comedy with character stakes. And you kind of get the impression that Rick is so smart he realizes he's in a cartoon, and that's why he can do that. We did a video a while back about Shehawk, where I was like, it's, it's, shehawk,

Breaking the fourth wall is fine. Shehawk, imagining she's seeing a robot that's riding the universe is fine. Shehawk using that robot to completely alter what happens in the universe so Daredevil can appear out of the sky, to me, breaks the continuity of the universe that we all kind of understand, breaks the rules of how that universe works. So it does make me curious if they're going to acknowledge Sheehawk at all in the future, they're not going to do a season two, and her break in the fourth wall if they're going to acknowledge Sheehawk at all in the future, they're not going to do a season two, and her break into fourth wall if they're going to try to take Wade's fourth wall breaks

and make them literal. Heather, from a storytelling standpoint, where do you stand on how fourth wall breaks can work in the MCU? And how are they handled in the comics? Yeah, that's a very good question because there are three characters in the MCU who are in Marvel Comics, not MCU,

who have very specific fourth wall breaking capabilities. There's Deadpool and She-Halk, but there's also Gwenpool. And Gwenpool, I've heard of Gwenpool. Who created Winpool? I'm part of that, part of that family. Oh, are you? I didn't know. But, you know, in order for it to, for any mechanic to work, right, there needs to be rules, there needs to be boundaries.

It can't just be a free-for-all. Otherwise, especially with fourth wall breaking, our characters can be, you know, our favorite, our favorite word. word and a lot of these top back, they have plot armor, right? They can be omnipotent. They can be all-powerful. And Deadpool's fourth wall breaking in the comics has always kind of been questioned whether or not he's actually aware of the outside world or is he just crazy, right? That's kind of how it's always been played. The caption box is the fourth wall breaking is just the voices in his head. Um, you know, Gwenpool. And this is why I got kind of hopeful at the end of Sheehawk with what she did with that robot is Gwen Poole's ability is

She is aware that she is in a comic book and because she is a comic book fan She knows how comic books work and therefore can manipulate a comic book But that is where you know her powers are bound within you know if her comics is cancelled then she's she's cancelled, right? And can't keep it doesn't matter that she can control comic books because you know that They're no longer continuing. She hawk did the same thing. Sheeawk would rip through ads and she crossed panels to, yeah. It was very, very similar.

So, you know, I think it gets tricky with film. You know, sure we could see a character jump into another, like, movie, so to speak. But we're kind of already seen similar things with, you know, Dr. Strange's. portals that he creates and to other universes and in a physical way but how are how do you feel about acknowledging the fourth wall break is something literal that happens within the MCU within this universe with very set rules of how you like travel through places and things like that it's it's tricky i you know i wasn't a huge fan of how it was used in she hulk i think of kevin and all that really yeah I wasn't a huge, huge fan of that, how that was done.

I don't really know how to articulate why, but it felt very for the sake of the plot rather than an organic thing. Well, my problem with it, and we covered this in a video, was it wasn't Jen actually, it was her taking control of her story which is great right love that but she didn't actually do something to take control of her story she just

said what she wanted to happen and I thought with that whole I thought you could have kept that whole sequence and you could have just at the end of it show her like at the end of her talk like everything show her just on her bed and opening up her eyes and be like I'm going to do something about this and then have her go off

and do that it was very passive yeah Yeah. And for me, the fourth wall break was treated like, well, that's just lazy riding. And I don't think acknowledging that it's lazy writing makes it not lazy or makes it better unless you're doing a commentary on that kind of thing like Deadpool was doing. Exactly. And that's and that's what I enjoy about how Ryan Reynolds and Deadpool and that team handles the fourth wall breaks. You know, is they're poking fun at themselves and they're poking fun at their own films. They're poking fun at their own writing. And like, honestly, I'm excited to see him enter the MCU and poke fun. at the, you know, I, I'm so excited, I'm so excited, you know, talking about, I was actually talking about Deadpool and the TVA with my trainer this morning. Like, I can't wait for Deadpool to like make a huge joke about you have to watch X amount of seasons of television show in order to watch this movie. Because, you know, he's going to and I hope he does. Like, I hope the MCU really lets Ryan do what Ryan does with this, this character. And,

I assume they will. They want to, you know, they want to... I think so, too. Yeah. They know what they're getting into. I was telling Colton the other day, I thought that they should have called... I was hoping they would call the movie Deadpool Saves the Marvel Universe, which is probably just a hair too self-deprecating for Disney to pull off,

and I don't blame them for putting Wolverine in the title, but it still would have been pretty perfect. Colton, so you really think they're going to get super literal with the fourth wall break? Do you think Kevin's going to come back and be a whole part of that? Well, I'm having fun here. I don't know that that's exactly what they're going to do, but I think you make a good point about, I love fourth wall breaking when it's a wink and a nod and Deadpool thinks he's in a comic. And it's fun because as we, the reader knows he is and that makes it fun. But when you take it a step further to where in the actual story, like the canon of the story, he is in a comic book or he is in a movie. movie like they did with She-Hulk. I think the problem is, like, with She-Hulk, I loved what they did in the She-Hulk finale, and I think that would have worked perfectly if She-Hulk were just its own thing.

But it is a show that's connected to a bigger universe, and that makes you start to wonder, well, wait, so you're telling me the big, climactic, you know, heart-wrenching, like, sacrifice of Tony Stark, oh, he's really just a movie character, played by Robert Downey Jr. you're like it it starts to pull back a curtain that maybe it's fun to pull back that curtain and Deadpool and Shehulk but it's not so fun to pull back that curtain and infinity war and in game and secret wars so it it's definitely like a you know a tightrope they're going to have to walk I don't want them to go too far um I think they can with Deadpool but it's also important like the like I don't want to see Kevin Feige cameo in the MCU that's too far having it be a robot

named Kevin, that's funny. Maybe they could do that. I'd love to see Deadpool like slice up Kevin or something, but I think my overall point on it is they've got to be really careful. Have fun, but be really careful with it. Yeah, I think if they like, and this is so complex that they would, I can't foresee them ever, ever doing this in the MCU. But I think if they were to like say like everything that's happening in the MCU is happening within a comic book and now make the MCU like a comic book world rather than it's

it's Robert Downey Jr. playing Ironman it's actually a you know Tony Stark as Ironman it's actually Jane Foster as Thor rather than Natalie Portman as Jane Foster as Thor right it gets too complex it gets way too messy

so yeah I think that would work but I think if Deadpool's metaphor with Wall breaks is just him talking to us that he's aware that like, you know, certain things are happening rather than a Kevin Fahey, Victoria Alonzo, right, whatever, like, um, fourth wall break. That would be a little, little too meta and messy. I have a question. Do you guys, so we saw the 20th Century Fox statue in the void. I personally hope that they don't address that. Like, I think it's just a cool Easter egg

that it's there in the void, and we can appreciate that. Do you think we are going to be meant to literally take, oh, that's the 20th century Fox logo? And should we, like, be interpreting, like, this big meta, like plot point of the fact that something from our universe, a pruned movie studio. I hope no. I don't think that would be an actual plot point of the movie.

I think we'll see it. Maybe we'll get a throwaway line, right? But even then, that'll be contingent on legally. What are we allowed to actually say and make the cut of the films and yada, yada, right? And also, you know, it was pruned. You know, like everything in the void is something that doesn't quite exist in reality anymore, like the Polybius arcade machine, things like that, you know, like all the urban myths are there.

And that's what Disney calling 20th Century Fox and for some reason calling it 20th Studios, or 20th Century Studios did, you know. So one thing I always, you know, when I rewatch Deadpool, we always remember the fourth wall. Like, oh, big CGI fight when he points out things like from superhero tropes and movies. But these movies, as I keep saying, are not parody. They have certain parody elements added into them. But these are very grounded character dramas about a guy who also breaks the fourth wall. Again, I'll point to Rick and Morty where Rick breaks the fourth wall, but he's also very nihilistic.

He wants to kill himself sometimes, you know? Deadpool 1, he desperately needs to be with Vanessa. Like, she has given his life purpose. Everything he does in that movie, like I'm going to talk about in a little bit, was simply to be with her. So those movies have balanced out fourth wall breaking with this very grounded, very realistic approach. I don't know that Sheehawk ever quite gave us that.

I always got the feeling with Shehawk because it was in a sitcom format, that the stakes were never that high in her personal life. You know, I rooted for her. And that's the thing to do about Sheehawk. I hate to keep, it's a Deadpool episode, but we're going to talk about Sheehawk. That was one of the best adaptations of comic material I've ever seen, right? It was so loyal to John Byrne and Dan Slott and all the other wonderful creators who worked on that book.

But it just within that universe, it didn't quite fit. I do think that Deadpool and Sean Levy and Ryan Reynolds, saying Deadpool like he's a real person, are fully aware of how to integrate that aspect into a cinematic universe, though. I do wonder, though, how, I think they're going to acknowledge Sheehawk. I think they're going to acknowledge other characters breaking the fourth wall. And in my dreams, this movie fixes everything. Like, this movie can go back, like you said, Heather. It can mock certain points of the MCU that haven't worked.

Because what Deadpool has always done in these movies is make it clear that he is also a fan of these movies. He says the things that we're all thinking. The timelines are confusing, big CGI fight, you know, the nods to Wolverine. things like that, right? He's able to mock the seriousness of Logan and the opening shot of Deadpool 2. But while we also acknowledge how heart-wrenching that ending was, so if they have a chance to put a fan proxy on screen for fans and voice our grievances, I think it's going to go a long way for Marvel, like, gaining the, regaining the ground that they've lost. I completely agree. And I tweeted or X'd or whatever the other day how

excited I am to hear Deadpool be like, Avengers Asimple or something like that in Secret Wars. It's going to be so much fun. You know it would be great and I hope they do and I could see them doing this as have like made for like Disney Plus or like

even on YouTube, Deadpool commentary getting caught up on the MCU. Oh yeah. If it's just Deadpool right, him, him his feelings on watching the Captain America trilogy are watching right, watching the Infinity or and just like his summation of everything would be so incredible, I think.

And I really, really want that. Well, and Deadpool's going to also offer Marvel something they haven't had in this phase, and that is the main character. You know, we lost Tony Stark. Unfortunately, we lost Chadwick Boseman, who I think was poised to be the main character. Peter Parker is owned by another, the rights are temporarily, hopefully, owned by another studio. And this is their chance. This is their chance to bring somebody to the fan.

hands love front and center for the Infinity Saga. So, like I said earlier, I think the TVA is sending Wade out to kill variants who threaten the timeline because he is an unscrupulous assassin who can do the dirty work that they're now forbidden to take on. But what if they sent him to kill a version of Wade Wilson in a universe where Wade is actually happy, where he never got cancer, he wasn't disfigured, and where he and Vanessa are still together. Right, they broke up.

Well, in the trailer, it kind of looks like it. I mean, they're standing apart and Vanessa calls him Bud. Make a wish, buddy. But they... I know. I mean, the relationship between. between Vanessa and Wade is at the heart of those first two movies. Everything he does in part one is to be with Vanessa,

even going on a murder spree so Francis will fix his face. And her death in Deadpool 2 was just genuinely heartbreaking. All those scenes where he saw her in like the spirit realm and the afterlife. Is this heaven? It is now. Devastating. And now, Wade has to cope with the knowledge that he's immortal and someday he will lose Vanessa. Or maybe they've just drifted apart so they're no longer together.

So it would make sense if the TVA maybe offered Wade a chance for the two of them to stay together forever. But doing that means that Wade has to kill a variant of her, so instead he decides to rebel against them. So all this would mean that Wade ultimately does lose Vanessa, but he loses her to secure her own happiness, to save her universe, so then she can move on and be happy without him messing up her life. It would also give Deadpool the suicidal pathos that Heather talked about earlier and make him a very fun character to use in Avengers Secret Wars and in the future of the MCU in phases 7 through 9. Again, big shout out to Heather Antos and Colton Ogburn for their thoughts. You can find their socials linked

below. And we want to hear what you guys think. What do you think Deadpool's mission is? Who's going to be the villain of this movie? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below or at me on Twitter. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe and smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie.