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I'll say it once and I'll say it again. Deadpool and Wolverine will be the highest grossing movie of 2024.

It's not a hot take to say that Marvel has been going downhill since Endgame. Flop after flop, loss after loss. Expensive reshoots that don't payoff. Hell, that can't even name their projects anymore.

Minor spoilers ahead. Jump to the spoiler-free review.

But, yeah, floating out in the void of woke nonsense, a politically incorrect red-suited jester waits to break the fourth wall into your heart and he's brought Hugh Jackman in for one last rodeo, finally, FINALLY putting Wolverine in his comic-accurate yellow and blue suit, complete with cowl.

For that reason alone, you should go see it.

Deadpool & Wolverine follows the titular heroes on a quest to save Deadpool's timeline. They bring in elements of the TVA from the Loki series, but I don't know that you really need to know that much about them. A background in the general multiverse stuff that's been happening is a bonus, but not a necessity, as Deadpool will just tell you what's going on throughout the movie.

There's an awesome montage where Deadpool is traveling to different universes to find a good Wolverine to work with. Loved it.

You get more than one knockout, blood-soaked battle between the title characters. The cameos are fantastic. It's exactly what you would want and expect from a Deadpool movie.

More so, it's a loving (if rated - R) tribute to 20th Century Fox's contributions to the Marvel cinematic universe. In the Void at the end of time (just go with it), Deadpool and Wolverine team up with Wesley Snipe's Blade, Jennifer Garner's Electra and Channing Tatum's Gambit. The good, the bad and the never-was/could have been. (There's also some surprise characters in there, but I'm not going to spoil everything.)

Let us ALSO not forget that if Ryan Reynolds hadn't played the wise-cracking Hannibal King in Bade: Trinity, he may never have had a chance to play the wise-cracking Wade Wilson in the Deadpool movies. Questionable facial hair aside, you cannot ignore that one role led to the other.

While Deadpool and Wolverine are trying to escape the Void, Blade, Electra and Gambit have nowhere to go. Their timelines, their universes have already been destroyed. Electra tells Wade they just want their ending. This is their last stand.

And, damn, it's fun.

Tatum COMMITS to the cajun accent and they make Gambit freaking cool. Full 90s' TV show costume with chest plate, half-mask and bo staff. He's exploding people with the cards. Just...yes.

Is it meta? Yes. Super-meta. Deadpool cracks plenty of jokes about Disney and Fox, but the return of these characters really digs at you in a way that other nostalgia doesn't. Because it's not really nostalgia. It's more like that moment when Bing-Bong dies in Inside Out. Something's gone that you didn't really remember. Something's gone that you're not really sure you missed. But, in a way, it's still kind of sad.

In a story about heroic sacrifice, these characters realize they are gone already, functionally forgotten. But they never were Logan or Captain America or Iron Man or Spider-man. They never made it into the opening credits. They walked so Marvel could fly and now, with Ryan Reynolds' Maximum Effort, at least a part of them has been brought back into the Marvel family.

Deadpool & Wolverine tie their universe together sort of like Spider-Man: No Way Home. Both movies have a lot of similarities, actually, in their handling of beloved characters past and the multiverse. Of course, Deadpool & Wolverine is full of f-bombs, jokes, winks, nods, blood, and easter eggs.

Non-spoilery review:

Deadpool & Wolverine is worthy. It fits perfectly in with the other Deadpool movies (minus the cocaine), delivers on the action and humor, and gives Wolverine the Juggernaut/Colossus treatment. By that, I mean fixes them by giving the fans exactly what they've wanted from the first X-men movie.

A loving, if raunchy, tribute to the legacy of 20th Century Fox's Marvel products, it is extremely re-watchable if only for all the easter eggs you missed the first time you saw it. It's rated R for a reason, so watch at your own risk. There's something that Marvel has lost and D&W exploits a nostalgia you might have not even known you had.

Ryan Reynolds was given enough freedom to make something that Marvel hasn't in a few years: a movie that people want to see.

Is Deadpool Marvel Jesus? I'm not sure I would go that far. One good movie is a start, but the stories about upcoming Marvel projects aren't promising.

But, for this one, Reynolds' nailed it.

Recommend. Enjoy.

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Kate works in production at LwC. She is an author. When she isn’t writing...who are we kidding? She’s always writing. You can find her here on X.