For someone who doesn’t care about Deadpool at all, I sure have been finding myself writing about him, his movies, and playing with his ass a bit more than I anticipated. It’s with that in mind that I come to deliver my latest missive: don’t watch the final trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine if you care at all about spoilers. I don’t even care about spoilers and I still think this is an insane trailer to drop a week before your big movie drops. I can’t talk about why, though, without inherently spoiling the whole thing for you all so…
I guess Dafne Keen is back as X-23, huh?
After months of dodging questions about potentially reprising her role as the legendary X-Men’s progeny from 2017’s Logan, we’ve finally got confirmation. The latest trailer for Deadpoool & Wolverine just kind of gives away Keen’s return near the end. In her brief time on screen, X-23, also known as Laura, seems to have a tense heart-to-heart with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) before walking away from him.
Keen, who can also be seen in the recent Star Wars show The Acolyte, has been batting away any questions about her involvement in the movie for months. Whenever she’s been asked about potentially appearing in the film, she’s insisted that she wasn’t asked to be a part of it, but would “watch it as a fan” instead. Of course, no one really believed her, considering what an integral role Keen’s character played in Logan, which was supposed to be Jackman’s final portrayal of Wolverine back in 2017. When will the comic book movie industrial complex stop forcing these actors to lie to us for no apparent reason?
The version of Wolverine that X-23 will be meeting in this movie is an entirely different one than the one that took care of her in Logan, though. As the trailer also spells out, this Wolverine is from a different universe and never knew X-23 or lived through the tragic events of that movie. Regardless, she seems to come to him at a time of crisis and tries to screw his head on straight ahead of what seems like a fight to save Deadpool’s universe and his loved ones.
Deadpool & Wolverine, which is set to bring the franchise and central character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was always going to play this hand. These movies are riddled with cameos and nostalgic bait, so I never really doubted Keen’s involvement, but it’s still absolute nonsense to have this character come back, make the actor lie about it for months, and then give it away in promotional material a week before the movie premieres? I guess that’s one way to motivate an audience to see this movie, but I don’t really know anyone who was on the fence about ever seeing it in the first place and for whom this would’ve made a tangible difference. You’ve only spoiled what would’ve been a crowd-pleasing moment for the theater-going audience.
Elsewhere, the trailer also reveals that Lady Deadpool will play a part in the movie, which also has the internet up in arms. Many think that she’ll likely be played by Ryan Reynolds’ wife Blake Lively, but an even wilder contingent of people are desperately hoping it’s their bestie Taylor Swift instead. As a Swfitie, this is where I’m choosing to focus my energy. I guess we’ll figure that out, as well as the extent of Keen’s involvement, when Deadpool & Wolverine releases next week.