Deadpool and Wolverine is coming to save the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or so hope the MCU faithful. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman's multiversal mashup, in which the duo will reprise their titular fan-favorite superheroes, comes at a critical crossroads for the comic book movie era: with diminishing box office returns after years of oversaturation, superhero studios are tacking toward quality over quantity, and the hope is that the third Deadpool will mark the genre's resurgent return to form.
The major sell is that Shawn Levy's threequel will unite two of Marvel's most valuable toys, bringing what were once Fox's Uncanny X-Men into what is now Disney's MCU, and pay off a la Spider-Man: No Way Home, which brought together the three cinematic Spider-Men of the 21st Century on the way to just shy of $2 billion at the box office. Will it be such a huge draw? Time will tell, but on current evidence, our expectations are mixed. On the one hand, Deadpool's signature sense of humor has historically meant a decent time had by all, and Jackman was built from scratch in a charisma factory; I mean, who doesn't like Hugh Jackman? And who didn't love his Wolverine?
But the marketing campaign, so far, has all but relied on a single tiresome joke, in what is the movie marketing equivalent of pointing at something and going “Ha, gay!”— namely, that Deadpool wants to fuck Wolverine.
It began with the very first poster, where Deadpool and Wolverine's masks represent one part each of a BFF broken heart necklace, with the caption “come together,” essentially a thinly-veiled joke about platonic bros having sex. Other materials emphasising their more-than-a-bromance have followed. It's all very late '90s, touching on the age-old cliché that homocurious straight men are but one poppers-sniff away from full-on doggy with their childhood bestie—“brojob, choo choo,” etc.
X content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Alas, as some commentators on Twitter have pointed out, said sexualized bromance has been a little too heavily relied on by Deadpool 3's marketing run, gay euphemisms repeated ad infinitum, enough to fill the world's biggest dark room. The latest example is a poster that pastiches Beauty and the Beast by placing the duo in a fantastical waltz, like a pair of lost lovers. This is all pitched as Deadpool's fantasy, his played-for-laughs desire representing one-way traffic, but to some, the joke nevertheless reads as: Isn't it funny that a man can love another man?
To be sure, the world is dealing with greater ills than these silly gags, which aren't diet homophobia so much as they're just outmoded. (Let's not forget that Deadpool threw the first brick at Stonewall.) The joke also tracks textually, given that Deadpool canonically fancied the pants off Wolverine in Deadpool 2, simultaneously wanting to be him and in him. With a little more generosity, one might even read it as a sign of political progress that a movie targeted at late-teen to young adult men can be marketed around a punchline that implies one of its heroes would like to explore the other's body. Further, others will argue that the joke is actually more that Deadpool is constantly turned down by his hotter, hairier peer. All that said: call this gag Wolverine's prostate, because it's time for Deadpool to stop milking it.