Deadpool's Entire Movie Timeline Explained
Deadpool hasn't had the easiest go of it regarding feature film adaptations. It took years for any version of the Merc with a Mouth to make it into live-action, and when he did, he wasn't called Deadpool, he couldn't speak, and he was nothing like the character from the comics. Fortunately, Ryan Reynolds loves the character so much that he and many others fought to make the first "Deadpool" film in 2016.
"Deadpool" introduced a comic-accurate portrayal of the character and was an astounding success. A sequel came out in 2018, and while the Disney acquisition of 20th Century Fox could have ended it there, the merger has produced "Deadpool and Wolverine" in 2024. Despite being a Disney production, Deadpool is back to his old tricks in the third film, even proclaiming himself the "Marvel Jesus."
While Deadpool's admittedly controversial story continues in live-action, his history is a bit muddled. Thanks to time travel and the fact that there have been two Deadpools in various franchises, it's a bit complicated to follow Deadpool's entire timeline. If you're looking for a refresher, this article highlights the significant events in Deadpool's movie experiences, covering everything from his wretched beginning with Fox to his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Wade Wilson is a member of William Stryker's Team X
Towards the end of the Vietnam War on Earth-10005 (the Earth of the Fox Marvel movies), Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) serves on U.S. Army Major William Stryker's (Danny Huston) Team X alongside a group of mutants, including teleporter John Wraith (will.i.am), invulnerable Fred Dukes (Kevin Durand), marksman Agent Zero (Daniel Henney), electropath Chris Bradley (Dominic Monaghan), and fast-healing brothers Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber) and James Howlett, later known as Logan (Hugh Jackman).
In 1973, the team sets out on a mission to infiltrate a building's top floor so Stryker can determine the location of adamantium. While aboard a stopped elevator, Wilson immediately starts cracking jokes at his team's expense. Bradley gets the car moving again, and Wilson steps out and engages eight men firing automatic rifles with nothing but his katana. He uses his sword to deflect rounds into his enemies, split the bullets in two, and impale a couple of guys in a coup de grâce.
After cleaning out the room, Stryker mentions that if Wilson "didn't have that mouth on you, Wade, you'd be the perfect soldier." Wilson casually salutes his commanding officer, and that's the last time he's seen active until the end of the decade. From this point, Team X carries on for a bit, but it disbands soon after James leaves, when he sees how much his brother has changed and embraced the carnage afforded to Stryker's men.
Wade returns as an upgraded, silent Weapon XI
By 1979, Wade Wilson effectively disappears from the world stage, leaving his former teammates ignorant of his location or what he's up to. This question is eventually answered when James Howlett arrives on Three Mile Island in his hunt for Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). When he confronts William Stryker over her kidnapping, the ensuing confrontation reveals what happened to Wilson: Stryker captured and experimented on him for years.
Wilson isn't the man he once was, thanks to some seriously damaging surgical alterations. The soldier-turned-mercenary who would never shut up has his lips removed and his mouth sealed up with grafted skin. He's also sporting a ton of new mutations, which Stryker has effectively stolen from the rest of the team. As a result, the newly dubbed "Weapon XI" can teleport, fire optic blasts, retract adamantium blades from his forearms, and more.
The ensuing fight sees James team up with his brother once more, as neither can stop the upgraded Wade on their own. The fight destroys much of the facility, but comes to an abrupt end when James decapitates Wade, leaving him for dead. After James and Victor go their separate ways, the decapitated head of Weapon XI breaks the fourth wall and shushes the audience with his mouth once more exposed as his body parts begin to move toward his head.
Wade is a mercenary and meets the love of his life
On Earth-41633 (a branch timeline), and sometime around 2016, Wade Wilson works as a mercenary in Vancouver, British Columbia. He takes odd jobs helping out the little guy where he can, having moved on from his dishonorable discharge from the Canadian Special Forces. After completing a relatively simple job scaring the pants off a would-be stalker, Wade meets a prostitute named Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). After some skeeball and rough sex, they begin a relationship.
Wade and Vanessa are happy as they sexually celebrate everything from President's Day to National Women's Day. The two grow very close, and after around one year of dating, Wade pops the question using a Ring Pop as an engagement ring. Vanessa accepts, and before they have a chance to celebrate their engagement, Wade drops to the floor without any noticeable cause, leading to a quick visit to the doctor.
Upon seeing the doctor, Wade and Vanessa learn that he has a plethora of stage IV cancers, and there's nothing that anyone can do. Vanessa is unwilling to accept Wade's fate, so she looks into alternative medicine and anything she can to prolong his life. But Wade has other plans. Determined not to force Vanessa to watch him wither away and die, Wade sets out to die alone, wallowing in misery and separated from the woman he loves.
Wade unlocks his latent mutant gene
While in a particularly dark place, Wade runs into a recruiter (Jed Rees) who just so happens to be in the business of helping wayward former military operatives in desperate situations. With a little convincing, the recruiter manages to bring Wade into the program, which a mutant named Ajax (Ed Skrein) runs with the help of his muscle, Angel Dust (Gina Carano). They subject Wade to intense, nonstop torture in an attempt to unlock his latent mutant genes.
Wade learns Ajax's actual name, Francis, and taunts him. This leads to a more aggressive form of torture involving a hypobaric chamber that continuously brings him to the brink of asphyxiation. The torture works and unlocks Wade's mutant genes, but instead of curing his cancer, it spreads throughout every system of his body. He also gains the ability to heal from any injury, pitting his cancer against his now superior healing factor.
Ajax informs Wade that he won't become a superhero and will be contracted out as mutant muscle to the highest bidder. But Wade steals a match from Angel Dust, which he uses to blast himself out of the chamber. This leads to a massive fire and the destruction of the lab, and it also sets Wade on a quest to find Francis and force him to fix the damage the mutation has wrought because, by this point, Wade doesn't look very good.
Wade becomes Deadpool
Wade doesn't adapt well to downgrading his Ryan Reynolds-like good looks for what he's become, so he sets his sights on Francis. The only problem is that he doesn't know how to find him, so Wade gathers what he does know of the man and his organization and systematically tears it down, one goon after the next, demanding to know, "Where's Franchise?"
Nobody gives him the answer he's looking for, so he creatively slaughters everyone. As Wade kills Ajax's men, he finds the recruiter and tells him just how unsatisfied he is with his new lot in life. Eventually, he dons a red suit, changes his name to Deadpool, and launches an attack on Ajax's convoy. This ends with Deadpool expertly killing everyone he can with as few bullets as possible because he forgot his ammo and weapon bag in Dopinder's (Karan Soni) taxi.
Still, he manages to pin Ajax to the wall with a katana, but before Deadpool can do anything else to him, some X-Men show up. Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) interrupt Deadpool and drag him away, allowing Ajax to flee. Deadpool cuts off his hand to escape and decides to approach Vanessa and reveal what he's become. Unfortunately, Ajax kidnaps her with the intent of using her as bait.
Deadpool fights Ajax to the death
After Vanessa's kidnapping, Deadpool reluctantly arrives at Xavier's mansion to recruit the X-Men to help get her back. He convinces Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead to help him, so they head out to the junkyard to face Ajax and the few men he has left. While Colossus fights Angel Dust, Deadpool tears through Ajax's goons, killing all of them before running into his old pal Bob, whom he lets live.
Eventually, Wade faces off against Ajax on the deck of a wrecked helicarrier, where Ajax has placed Vanessa inside the hypobaric chamber. The fight is brutal, with Deadpool stabbed in the skull and injured in various ways that would kill anyone else. Still, he succeeds in beating Ajax to the ground while saving Vanessa from dying in the chamber, leading to a final confrontation.
As Deadpool straddles Ajax to kill him, he's interrupted by Colossus in an attempt to appeal to Wade's humanity. This makes Deadpool pause for a brief moment, until he shoots Ajax in the face, killing him and causing Colossus to vomit all over the place. With Ajax dead, the only thing left for Deadpool is to face Vanessa, whom he ghosted and never told he was no longer dying of cancer.
Deadpool comes clean to Vanessa
Shortly after killing Ajax, Deadpool is left alone to face Vanessa. She quickly begins beating on him for leaving her the way he did, so he apologizes profusely, explaining how rough things have been for him. This admission leads to a back-and-forth between the two, as they try to one-up each other by comparing how terrible their lives are.
This dialogue almost mirrors the conversation they first had in the bar when they met, and it ends with Wade apologizing once more. He allows Vanessa to remove his mask, exposing a second mask of Hugh Jackman covering his actual face. Of course, he stapled it on, so it's not easy to remove, but she does, exposing his deformed features.
Vanessa is absolutely taken aback at first but looks into the eyes of the man she loves and says, "After a brief adjustment period and a bunch of drinks, it's a face ... I'd be happy to sit on," which is all he needs to hear. They have a nice exchange as the X-Men leave, giving Wade and Vanessa the moment he'd been looking forward to for a long time, and they make out while listening to Wham's "Careless Whisper."
Deadpool is the Merc with a Mouth
About two years after his battle with Ajax, Deadpool has found his niche as the Merc with a Mouth. He works around the globe, delivering death and mayhem to a variety of evildoers while remaining uproariously happy with Vanessa. Many of Deadpool's targets come from organized crime, which becomes problematic after he fails to kill one of his marks, leaving the man with an opportunity few before him have had.
Before that happens, Wade and Vanessa talk about expanding their family, and just as he experiences a moment of pure bliss, Wade's world comes crashing down. One of the mafiosos he didn't kill in his last contract arrives at his apartment with several goons in tow, leading to a quick fight in which Wade dispatches each of them one by one.
By the time he gets to the last guy, he throws a cream cheese spreader at the man, causing his aim to shift. The thug fires a round that goes right into Vanessa's chest, knocking her to the ground. Wade rushes over to try and help her, but she's already fading. Before long, Vanessa dies from her wound, leaving Wade alone, despondent, and more than happy to bring an end to his misery in whichever way he can find that works.
Deadpool blows himself up
Losing Vanessa isn't something Wade can handle, so he decides the only way to get past the loss is to kill himself. The only problem with that plan is that Deadpool isn't easy to kill — even Deadpool can't do it. He learns this quickly as he attempts to commit suicide in various creative ways. One of his more desperate moves involves lying atop half a dozen barrels of a flammable liquid and tossing in a match.
The resulting massive explosion sees Deadpool's body parts fly every which way, but that doesn't kill him either. Deadpool's healing factor means he can recover from any injury, so he just regrows his body and finds himself right back in the same boat. This final act attracts the attention of his old pal, Colossus, who heads out to get his friend and try to convince him to join the X-Men.
Colossus believes Wade needs the X-Men to replace the family he lost with Vanessa's passing, but Deadpool isn't entirely on board. Despite this, he convalesces at Xavier's mansion and recovers from his last attempt on his life. Eventually, Deadpool agrees to work with Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead — but instead of becoming a full member of the X-Men, he throws on a trainee shirt and follows them into the field.
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Deadpool joins the X-Men
After Colossus gives him the hard sell and Deadpool agrees to tentatively join the X-Men, it doesn't take long for a mission to call them into the field. Deadpool joins Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead at a mutants-only orphanage run by the Essex Corporation. They find a dangerous situation involving an orphaned mutant kid named Russell Collins (Julian Dennison), who's in a standoff with the authorities.
The X-Men mean to de-escalate the situation, giving Deadpool an opportunity to prove himself. Initially, he does a good job of talking Russell down, but in doing so, he learns that the staff mistreats him and the other children. Being who he is, Deadpool kills a staff member, but Colossus stops him from killing the headmaster. Once restrained, Deadpool is quickly fitted with a mutant suppression collar alongside Russell, and they're both arrested.
It's fair to say Deadpool's first mission with the X-Men isn't a complete success. He and Russell are thrown into the Ice Box, a specialized prison designed to hold powerful mutants. Because they're all wearing collars, none of the inmates, including Russell and Deadpool, can use their mutant abilities. This proves slightly more problematic for Wade, seeing as his mutation is the only thing keeping his many cancers from killing him.
Deadpool accepts his fate
After settling into the Ice Box, Deadpool and Russell have different ideas of how to handle their situation. Russell wants to secure his safety by attacking the biggest guy in the prison, but Deadpool is more than willing to lie back and accept his fate. The mutant suppression collar is his ticket to death, and seeing as he spent so much time trying to die by suicide, letting it happen "naturally" brings him peace.
This leads to a rift between Russell and Deadpool despite Russell's desire to remain close. Deadpool's health rapidly declines while Russell attempts to stand up for himself. After Deadpool rebuffs him several times, Russell turns for support to an unseen mutant hidden behind a massive door, and they hatch a plan to help one another bust out when the opportunity presents itself.
Unbeknownst to any of them, Cable (Josh Brolin) travels back from the future to exact revenge on Russell and save his family. It seems that at some point in the future, Russell, who will go by the name Firefist, slaughters Cable's family in their home. After Cable arrives in the present, he makes his way to the Ice Box so he can eliminate Russell before he has a chance to kill his family, but there's one person he doesn't count on: Deadpool.
Deadpool fights a time-travelling hitman
Cable arrives at the Ice Box and quickly makes his way inside, relying on the futuristic gear and cybernetic enhancements that make him incredibly difficult to take down. At first, Cable's attacks seem indiscriminate, but Deadpool works out that Russell is his target. While Deadpool and Russell aren't the closest of friends at this point, Deadpool isn't going to stand back and watch Russell die, so he intervenes when Cable attacks.
Cable doesn't have much difficulty beating up Deadpool, since the latter is dying from every form of cancer possible. During their fight, Deadpool's mutant suppression collar breaks off, reinvigorating him and boosting his health back up to 100%. With this, he's able to fight Cable more directly, but he's still without weapons or any of the usual bag of tricks he uses to dispatch enemies.
Deadpool manages to take the fight outside the Ice Box, enabling his escape while keeping Cable from killing Russell. Deadpool then resolves to stop Cable from completing his mission, so he decides to put together a team of like-minded mutant mercenaries. To this end, Deadpool holds interviews in what amounts to an open casting call, which brings in all manner of interesting individuals capable of incredible feats.
Deadpool establishes -- and loses -- X-Force
Deadpool's "casting call" attracts a variety of interesting applicants, leading to the formation of X-Force. The team consists of Domino (Zazie Beetz), Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgård), Vanisher (Brad Pitt), and Peter (Rob Delaney), a regular fellow without any powers who saw the ad and thought it would be fun. Deadpool and X-Force proceed to parachute atop a prison convoy that's transferring Russell and others from the Ice Box.
Unfortunately, despite all of his special forces training, Deadpool doesn't monitor wind conditions, leading to a perilous airborne assault. As each member of X-Force parachutes down to the convoy, several end up dead before even hitting the ground: Bedlam slams into a moving bus, Shatterstar falls into spinning helicopter blades, turning him into soup, and Vanisher electrocutes himself when he slams into some power lines.
Zeitgeist successfully makes his way to the ground but is sucked into a woodchipper. Peter, having safely landed nearby, attempts to pull him out, but Zeitgeist vomits acid all over Peter, killing him. This leaves only Domino and Deadpool alive to continue the mission, which they do, though Domino's luck does most of the work in infiltrating the convoy.
Deadpool and Domino to the rescue
With most of X-Force effectively wiped out, Russell's rescue is left to the only surviving members: Domino and Deadpool. Domino succeeds in landing right where she needs to be without any difficulty, thanks to her powers of luck, while Deadpool spends most of his landing stuck on a billboard. After he frees himself, he watches everyone but Domino die but getting back into the fight.
As Domino and Deadpool try to save Russell aboard the prison transport, Cable arrives and mucks everything up. The mutants aboard the vehicle are freed, resulting in more deaths as Cable and Deadpool fight their way through the transport, getting thrown about multiple times before Russell successfully releases his secret friendly inmate.
To Deadpool's delight, the secret mutant is none other than Juggernaut. However, his joy at seeing the fan-favorite X-Men villain is short-lived because as soon as Juggernaut notices Deadpool, he heads right for him and tears him in half at the waist, throwing each half to the ground. Deadpool desperately tries to convince Russell not to go with Juggernaut, but he doesn't listen, determined to kill his former headmaster.
Deadpool joins forces with Cable
After the fight with Juggernaut, Deadpool heads to Blind Al's (Leslie Uggams) place to recover and grows a new pair of legs. He flaunts this without a mote of shame as his tiny baby legs (and the infantile-sized equipment between them) are out for all to see. At this time, Deadpool talks to his surviving friends about their next moves, as he still hopes to save Russell from himself by stopping him from killing the headmaster.
Around this time, Cable arrives and shockingly asks for help. Now that the Juggernaut is out in the open, Cable can no longer kill Russell, so he strikes a deal with Deadpool. Cable agrees to give Deadpool a single chance to change Russell's mind and keep him from turning to the dark side. They agree to work together, so Deadpool returns to Xavier's Mansion again to recruit Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna) to his team.
Deadpool, Cable, Domino, and the rest gear up as Deadpool puts together his kit, which includes all manner of killing implements, and throws it in Dopinder's cab. Dopinder drives them to the orphanage, hoping to get in on the action with his friend, but Deadpool doesn't want to endanger him. When they arrive, Dopinder remains in his cab as the revamped, unofficial X-Force faces off against Juggernaut in what promises to be a battle to end all battles.
Deadpool and friends vs. Juggernaut: Round 2
It's almost a one-sided fight when the newly assembled team faces off against Juggernaut. Sure, Cable blasts him with his gun turned up to 11, but it barely bothers the behemoth. After Deadpool gets an iron bar jammed through his skull, Colossus arrives to engage with Juggernaut in a one-on-one fight. Deadpool then begins looking for Russell with Cable as they fight their way through the staff.
Meanwhile, Russell hunts down the headmaster, burning the building as he goes and leaving Domino to rescue the other children hunkering down inside. The headmaster isn't interested in getting too close to the murderous mutant, and they eventually find themselves outside. At this point, Cable decides that he's given Deadpool his one chance to change Russell, so he pulls out his gun and fires off a round at the boy's chest. Deadpool jumps in the bullet's path, saving him.
While having a bullet lodged in his heart wouldn't usually faze Deadpool, he's wearing a mutant suppression collar in an attempt to appeal to Russell. He refuses to remove it, as he still hopes to redeem the young mutant and keep him from becoming evil. This leaves Deadpool without his healing factor and completely vulnerable to his now-fatal wound, which initiates what has to be one of the most protracted death scenes in any movie.
Deadpool's drawn-out death scene
Deadpool spends a few minutes dying from his wound, but as he says goodbye to his friends, he seemingly dies and comes back a few times. Deadpool is happy to succumb to his injury because it means he can finally see Vanessa again, while also managing to save Russell. This leaves him in peace, so after several minutes and false starts, Deadpool finally dies and returns to his apartment, where he meets Vanessa in the afterlife. She tells him it's not his time to go just yet.
Seeing Deadpool's sacrifice, Cable uses his time travel device to go back and place Vanessa's token over Deadpool's heart in the moments leading up to his shooting. When events otherwise play out the same, and he's shot again, the token stops the bullet, saving his life. This results in Wade's survival and Russell's redemption, with Deadpool finding a happy ending and a new family with his friends.
Of course, Deadpool isn't the type of guy to leave everything well enough alone, so despite securing a happy ending, he has one more trick up his sleeve. After getting Yukio and Negasonic Teenage Warhead to repair Cable's time travel device, Deadpool decides to use it to right a few wrongs he feels need correcting, so he steps into the timeline and gets to work.
Deadpool rights some wrongs
With Cable's time travel device in hand, Deadpool travels back to the moment of Vanessa's death and kills the bad guy before he gets off a shot, saving her life. From there, he travels to the moment of X-Force's many deaths and saves Peter's life (but doesn't bother to save anyone else). He then travels into the past of Earth-10005, where Logan first meets that universe's version of Wade Wilson in his Weapon XI configuration.
Deadpool easily shoots his past alter-ego in the head, advising Logan that while he'll eventually retire, he'll get a call from his "old pal Wade" at some point to come back and should say yes. Next, he travels to some point before 2011, when Ryan Reynolds finishes reading the script for the box office bomb "Green Lantern." While Reynolds is excited about playing a DC Comics superhero in a live-action movie, Deadpool knows better and shoots him in the head, killing him.
By the time Deadpool's time travel shenanigans are over, he's saved Vanessa and Peter, killed two versions of himself in alternate realities, and made a real mess of the timeline. But as any fan of the MCU's small-screen series "Loki" knows, you don't mess with time without facing repercussions. Deadpool's actions gain the attention of the one organization he really doesn't want to mess with.
Deadpool is brought in by the TVA
Approximately six years after saving Russell, Deadpool is as happy and content as possible as he celebrates his birthday with his friends. His happiness is interrupted by a knock on the door, and when he opens it, he finds a handful of Time Variance Authority (TVA) agents hoping to talk to him. After minimal resistance, they drag him to the TVA, where Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) explains that Wade is different from anyone else in the multiverse, possibly alluding to his ability to break the fourth wall.
At some point after this meeting, Deadpool agrees to work with the TVA, but they don't play well together for long. Sometime after Deadpool bumps into Wolverine, the two fight but eventually agree to work together. While it's unclear precisely what's going on with the TVA, Deadpool, and Wolverine, one thing that's clear is that nobody is unwilling to annihilate anyone else. Deadpool fights Wolverine, who reciprocates in kind, and they both enjoy decapitating as many TVA agents as they can, ensuring that Deadpool's trail of blood and mayhem will continue across the MCU.