The Big Picture

• Deadpool & Wolverine promises to be a wild ride, shaking up the MCU with meta-comedy and jokes targeting Kevin Feige.
• Dopinder (Karan Soni) returns as Deadpool's eager sidekick in the first Deadpool movie to join the MCU.
• Soni spoke about meeting Feige and the jokes about the Marvel Studios president in the film at SXSW.

The MCU is about to welcome its rudest, crudest hero yet with the release of Deadpool & Wolverine this summer. With both Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in the fold, the film is one of Disney's most hyped projects in recent memory, marking the first R-rated outing for the superhero cinematic universe on the big screen. Karan Soni, one of several actors reprising their roles from the first two films starring the Merc with a Mouth, was able to catch up with Collider's Perri Nemiroff at SXSW. While previewing his new movie, A Nice Indian Boy, Soni shared a little about what the threequel has in store for audiences and what it was like to meet Kevin Feige. Given Deadpool's penchant for meta-comedy, he was also able to tease that the Marvel boss is a frequent target for jokes in the script.

Soni will reprise his role as Dopinder in the film, the taxi driver turned personal chauffeur for Deadpool who desires to become a contract killer like him. While the star couldn't share any details of how his arc continues, he did believe it would be a worthy successor to the first two films from Shawn Levy. He also pointed out how Deadpool's MCU debut is good for both parties. For Disney, it's a chance to revitalize their superhero franchise after films like The Marvels and Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania underwhelmed at the box office, while Reynolds and company get a chance to work with Feige and play around with the very fabric of the new universe they now inhabit. For Soni personally, it was also a chance to get to know an industry giant:

"I can say that I think it'll be really good, this movie, and from my little experience of my part of it, it's definitely... Ryan's taking full advantage of the MCU and playing with all the toys. It also feels like it's coming at a perfect time for the MCU because it's ready for a little bit of a shake-up, and he's definitely shaking it up. And so I think like, this is great that it's coming at this time, and they're very willing to make fun of themselves, which is important. And I got to meet Kevin Feige, and I was surprisingly starstruck. I was a little bit like, oh my gosh, it's him. Which I was surprised that I was. But it’s very cool to see those minds together. You know, him, Kevin's obviously completely changed the industry, and then Ryan who's such a genius, like them combining their power, it's pretty exciting."

'Deadpool & Wolverine' Will Take Plenty of Cracks at Feige

The trailer made it clear that Deadpool & Wolverine wasn't going to leave the House of Mouse, Feige, or Marvel in general untouched with its jokes. Deadpool even refers to himself as "Marvel Jesus" in one line, setting up just how much Reynolds plans to bend the MCU to his whim. Plot details have been kept under wraps, but the film will see a begrudging team-up between Wade Wilson and Jackman's Wolverine to defeat a common foe in an adventure that also sees the Time Variance Authority (TVA) of Loki interfering, Jennifer Garner reprising her role as Elektra from the Ben Affleck-led Daredevil movie, and Emma Corrin rumored to debut the X-Men villain Cassandra Nova in live-action. It's setting up to be a bonkers, universe-colliding ride for all involved that even rivals the original Deadpool 3 plan at Fox, which Soni told Screen Rant was, "a road trip movie where Deadpool tries to save Christmas, so we all go to the North Pole."

Feige was game for much of it, Soni revealed. Although the process was a departure from the original films, he said that the Marvel boss was thrilled to work closely with the team as they weaved the MCU into Deadpool's world and capitalized on all the resources and IP that would provide. That also meant getting targeted by Reynolds on set and enduring jokes straight from the Merc's mouth, which Soni says are plentiful throughout the film's runtime:

"It was just like, this one was so different for me because we didn't get a script or anything. It was very secretive. And so we were just in this, I got the scene like the day before or whatever, and we walked into the sound stage, and he just appeared next to Hugh Jackman, and I was just like, I don't know what's happening. It was very crazy, but he was very sweet, very kind. He came up and said hi to all of us from the original movies and stuff, and he seemed excited himself by what was happening. And then Ryan is definitely like, you know, calling him out a lot at the moment. There's a lot of Kevin jokes [in the movie]. You have to have a good sense of humor and he does. So that's cool."

Deadpool & Wolverine premieres in theaters on July 26. Check out our guide to the superhero film here for everything you need to know ahead of its arrival. Stay tuned here at Collider for more coverage from SXSW, where Soni's latest film A Nice Indian Boy, also starring Jonathan Groff, will premiere on March 12. The festival runs through Saturday, March 16.