With Five Weeks To Go, Marvel Officially Slashes 'Deadpool' Release Date

After what feels like an eternity, Deadpool’s Marvel Cinematic Universe debut is almost upon us.

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) will officially enter Kevin Feige’s MCU in late July. With David Leitch’s Deadpool 2 (2018) releasing six years ago, the arrival of the Merc with a Mouth has been a long time coming.

As the name implies, Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson/Deadpool won’t be alone in this new franchise appearance. Legacy Marvel actor Hugh Jackman, who has been playing Logan/Wolverine since 2000’s X-Men, will also arrive in the MCU.

The pair, who are best friends in real life, are under a lot of pressure to secure some big bucks from audiences. It’s no secret that the Marvel Studios franchise has faced a steep decline in box office gross, reputation, and reliability over the last few years.

Last year, for example, included two of the studio’s poorest-received movies to date. Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels (2023) flopped at the box office, netting just over $200 million globally and becoming the worst-performing MCU movie to date.

Deadpool & Wolverine, though, is already off to an impressive start. The upcoming Marvel movie is on track to gross a massive $200-$239 million domestically in its opening weekend.

This forecast would cement the R-rated film as the biggest opening of the year, usurping Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2 (2024), which recently scored an above-expectations $155 million at the U.S. and Canada box office.

Not only is Deadpool & Wolverine the first Deadpool and X-Men-centric movie for Disney’s MCU, but it will also be the House of Mouse’s first R-rated Marvel movie.

Feige’s studio has historically produced PG-13 offerings, but in keeping with the 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios) movies, Deadpool & Wolverine will officially be bloody, gory, and loaded with foul language.

The R-rated nature of Deadpool & Wolverine has been a key component of the movie’s marketing. From the first teaser trailer that aired during the Super Bowl LVIII to the more recent popcorn bucket discourse, Shawn Levy’s movie is fully leaning into the cheeky antics of its leading character.

Written by Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds, Zeb Wells, Rhett Reese, and Paul Wernick, Deadpool & Wolverine is set for a July 26 release. However, in a surprise turn of events, Marvel has slashed that worldwide schedule and is debuting the movie in one country two days earlier.

Related: Confirmed: Deadpool To Eradicate the Marvel Universe, Will Kill off Captain Marvel and Spider-Man

Per new footage (via Comic Book Movie), Deadpool & Wolverine will be released in Japan on July 24. The announcement came with a new statement from Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson–“Yes, your underwear is getting tighter.”

The movie recently secured a release in China, which should give box office numbers a huge bump. However, it is already on track to deliver $1 billion for Marvel Studios, a first since the release of 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Similar to Spider-Man: No Way Home, Deadpool & Wolverine has the potential to bring surprising cameos from across multiple franchises. Where Spider-Man dealt with Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures characters, Levy’s movie has the catalog of Fox characters to pull from.

The 2019 Disney acquisition of 21st Century Fox allows Feige’s studio to incorporate characters from franchises like the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. A handful of appearances have already been made in the MCU canon, including Mister Fantastic (John Krasinski) in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) and Hank McCoy (Kelsey Grammer) in The Marvels.

But with Deadpool & Wolverine, Shawn Levy will seemingly bring a huge host of characters into the official MCU for the first time. Alongside the titular heroes, the film sees the return of  Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Rob Delaney as Peter, Karan Soni as Dopinder, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Shioli Kutsuna as Yukio, Stefan Kapičić as Colossus, and Lewis Tan as Shatterstar.

Trailer footage also confirmed that characters such as Lady Deathstrike and Azazel will also appear. Newcomers include Matthew Macfadyen as Time Variance Authority agent Mr. Paradox and Emma Corrin’s Cassandra Nova.

The inclusion of so many characters lends itself to the theory that Deadpool & Wolverine will act as a reboot of sorts for the MCU. It was clear from the first trailer that the film would tackle the issue of the Multiverse, with Wade Wilson declaring himself “Marvel Jesus” from the outset.

There is a lot of buzz surrounding this new release, and the film’s non-sequel nature will definitely be a win for Marvel Studios. Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger said earlier this year that there was no such thing as superhero fatigue and that if great movies are made, audiences will come.

Related: Report: ‘Deadpool’ Characters Not Involved in Disney’s New MCU After All

After two years of superhero sequels and a year of more misses than hits, Deadpool & Wolverine looks set to break the curse of under-performing Marvel movies and bring the franchise back up to the podium the studio itself created.

Are you disappointed Deadpool & Wolverine is not being released earlier in all markets? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!