The new teaser for Deadpool 3 – or to use its official name, Deadpool & Wolverine – is full of plot clues and Easter eggs. It’s easy to fixate on the most obvious of these (is that really Doctor Doom?), however, you shouldn’t sleep on Deadpool 3‘s subtle Secret Wars tease, as it could fix the MCU’s biggest problem.
Related: Will Loki Be in Deadpool 3?
What Is Secret Wars – and How Is It Connected to Deadpool 3?
So, what exactly is Secret Wars? That’s a tricky question to answer. Marvel has published multiple comic book series under this banner over the years. There’s the 1984-1985 Secret Wars crossover and its 1985-1986 sequel, Secret Wars II. Then there are the 2004-2005 miniseries Secret War (no ‘s’ at the end), and the 2015-2016 crossover Secret Wars. Oh, and Secret Wars is also the name of Marvel Studios’ upcoming sixth Avengers movie, due out in 2027. Confused yet?
Let’s drill down further, then. The original Secret Wars sees a bunch of Marvel heroes and villains slugging it out on Battleworld: a planet made from bits of other worlds. Secret Wars II shifts the action to Earth. Secret War is completely unrelated to either of these stories and effectively trades off their name. The 2015-2016 Secret Wars was a spiritual successor to the original and used the Battleworld conceit to tweak Marvel continuity. Avengers: Secret Wars will presumably take its cues from both the 1980s and 2010s comics, although Marvel Studios has repurposed comics titles before (*cough* Age of Ultron *cough*).
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All that said, when it comes to Deadpool 3, we’re only really interested in the 2015 comics and the 2027 MCU movie. Why? Because an issue of the 2015 Secret Wars series actually appears in the Deadpool & Wolverine teaser. This seemingly confirms that this version of the story will serve as the primary inspiration for the Secret Wars movie – and may tie into Deadpool 3‘s story, as well.
After all, the teaser features multiple shots of a wasteland combat arena with Battleworld overtones. This place is probably the Void from MCU Disney+ series Loki, but its inclusion of castoffs and debris from a range of realities – including our own! – has a lot in common with the 2015 Secret Wars‘ take on the patchwork planet. Yes, it really does feel like Deadpool 3 is teeing up a Secret Wars adaptation, and that’s a potentially huge deal – not just for Avengers 6, but for the wider MCU, too.
Deadpool 3 Could Use Secret Wars to Fix MCU Canon
See, the beauty of adapting Secret Wars is that it would allow Marvel Studios to alter or even restart established MCU canon. That’s an incredibly attractive proposition to the studio and fans alike, as the franchise’s shared continuity is, frankly, a mess. The MCU’s in-universe timeline has been broken since at least 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. Meanwhile, the more recent introduction of the multiverse concept has made figuring out how characters and events fit together harder than ever.
Gone are the days of rocking up to an MCU blockbuster with little to no prior knowledge under your belt. Now, you’d better do your homework if you want to understand (much less enjoy) what’s going on. And that’s a problem, given a key component of the MCU’s success was its accessibility. Sure, the franchise always rewarded its hardcore fanbase with deep-cut callbacks. But casual viewers could still piece together (or even ignore) the wider tapestry.
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Marvel Studios’ top brass seems acutely aware of this issue. Senior personnel (including studio boss Kevin Feige) have made a point of emphasizing the jumping-on-point quality of newer MCU releases. It’s not enough, though, because all the continuity baggage mentioned above hasn’t gone away. All Marvel Studios has done is the storytelling equivalent of kicking dirty laundry under the bed. A real fix is needed.
Deadpool 3 could be that fix, regardless of whether it resets MCU canon itself, or lays the groundwork for follow-up flicks like Avengers: Secret Wars to do so, instead. It certainly seems Feige and his team are thinking along these lines. The upcoming Fantastic Four reboot looks like it’ll be a 1960s period piece – something that makes a heckuva lot more sense if Deadpool 3 reboots existing lore.
So, here’s hoping Deadpool 3‘s Secret Wars tease is more than just playful fan baiting, because it may well be the solution to the MCU’s big continuity problem.
Deadpool & Wolverine arrives in cinemas on July 26, 2024.
