[UPDATE: In one of the happiest L’s this article’s author has ever had the pleasure of taking, it appears the rumored title of Deadpool & Friend was, in fact, a marketing bit. The film’s full title is actually the more simple and appropriate Deadpool & Wolverine – Or Wolverine & A–hole if you’re on #TeamLogan)]
While Marvel Studios has become notorious in recent years for making awful creative decisions, should a recent leak hold true, their final choice for the full title of Deadpool 3 will prove to be one of their absolute worst.
The supposed title for The Merc With A Mouth’s next silver screen adventure was first revealed to the public by way of noted scooper MyTimeToShineHello.
Per a blurry image of its supposed font logo shared to their personal Twitter account on February 9th, rather than Deadpool 3, the film’s official title will instead be – and no, this is not a joke – Deadpool & Friend, the ‘Friend’ in question of course being Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
Further, MyTimeToShineHello also shared an image of the film’s ‘character logo’, wherein the two native Canadian graduates of the Weapon Plus program are shown standing back-to-back while Deadpool gives a cheeky pose and Wolverine pops his signature claws.
While it’s possible that this title may end up being some sort of joke – a possible ‘fourth-wall parody break’ from the Crimson Comedian – it should be noted that the scooper made no suggestion that this would be the case.
As of writing, official details regarding Deadpool 3‘s plot and cast – outside of its inclusion of Jackman’s Wolverine and its taking place across the wider Marvel multiverse – currently remain scarce.
According to an official logline for the film released by Marvel Studios Japan, the threequel will see “The irresponsible hero Deadpool will change the history of the MCU with Wolverine!?”
Meanwhile, various set photo leaks have confirmed that the threequel will also feature appearances from Loki‘s Time Variance Authority, the X-Men (2000) versions of Toad and Sabretooth, a Fantasticar and even Dogpool.
As noted above, should Deadpool & Friend end up being the actual, final title for the film – and given MyTimeToShineHello’s track record of accuracy, it’s likely it will be – this absolutely uninspired choice will go down in Marvel history as one of their worst creative blunders of all time, right up there with shock revealing Rhodey had been replaced by a Skrull post-Age of Ultron and having Evan Peters’ cameo in WandaVision amount to nothing more than a dick joke.
This disappointment is even further compounded by the fact that, completely contrary to its lazy title, the film had been reportedly shaping up to be the antithesis to the MCU’s current, over-CGI’d and under-written state.
Among the most notable of those to make such a declaration was X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past director Matthew Vaughn.
Asked if he knew anything about the film’s development during a January 2024 appearance on the BroBible’s Post Credit Podcast, Vaughn asserted, “The few snippets that I know about Deadpool vs. Wolverine — or Wolverine vs. Deadpool, I’m sure that argument between Ryan and Hugh is happening as we speak — are unbelievable.”
“That’s going to be the jolt,” the Kingsman franchise director added. “The Marvel universe is about to have a jolt of them and it’s going to bring that body back to life.”
Drawing his thoughts to a close, Vaughn conclusively opined, “I think Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are about to save the whole Marvel universe.”
Ultimately, whether or not Deadpool & Friends‘ title ends up being a stark indicator of its actual quality or nothing more than a bizarre marketing misstep will be revealed when the film body-slides by two into theaters on July 26th.