“Time to make the chimi-f*cking-changas!”
With Korg.
That’s right, Deadpool is back and even deeper entangled in the Marvel Cinematic Universe than ever, as he stars alongside Korg – who you’ll know from the Thor movies and appearances in the Avengers – in a humorous reaction video… trailer, thingy—we’re not too sure, to be honest, but it’s funny.
Deadpool is one of just two characters to have crossed over from Fox’s X-Men franchise (first appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine) into the canon of the MCU. However, in this tongue-in-cheek hybrid between a promo for Ryan Reynolds’ film Free Guy and a Marvel short/Deadpool mini-series, we’re still given very little information as to what this is going to look like.
While we may not have seen him encounter with the mainline franchise figures up till now, the universe’s mastermind, Kevin Feige, did reveal that the third instalment would be in the MCU and still R-rated. That being said, now we’ve seen him interact with the loveable side-kick made of rocks, we can start to speculate as to where he fits in the wider universe.
As well as being obviously very funny, this little skit referred to as ‘Maximum Reaction’ – i.e. spoofing the online reaction culture of videos that continue to dominate a large corner of YouTube – does a very clever and typically Deadpool job of being meta and breaking the fourth wall.
As you can see, Korg’s inclusion not only sees the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ finally interact with someone from the proper Marvel, now Disney-owned movies, but it also works because Taika Waititi (who voices and mo-caps Korg) is also a central character in Free Guy as well – extending the strange paradigm of actors referring to themselves in the third-person beyond just Reynolds.
The two are known for having some of the funniest, most particular and recognisable senses of humour in mainstream cinema today, so it’s no surprise that they dovetail so well together in this weird little watch.
The jokes about IP-jumping between studios are rammed home as Deadpool/Reynolds quips that this film – made by 20th Century Fox (the same studio who made Deadpool) “looks fun in a ‘last days of Fox fire sale’ kind of way”, before asking Korg/Waititi how he can get into the MCU – to which the craggy, Kiwi-voiced entity says: “check your email”.
The mechanics around fitting Deadpool into the MCU are no doubt going to take maximum effort, as Disney and Fox continue to argue over who owns what. Nevertheless, Wade Wilson has now interacted with characters on both sides from and suggestions the X-Men universe could be included in Feige’s phase four have been rumbling for some time now.
Moreover, the fact that he stars alongside Korg in this sketch, a character who is part of the more cosmic side of things – with Thor: Love and Thunder coming next year – could that mean we’ll see Deadpool running into the Guardians of the Galaxy or at least Thor? Those are the two most comedic franchises within the MCU so, who knows? They might make a perfect fit.
