One of the things that Deadpool & Wolverine successfully does is bring the two titular characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the Wolverine in this film is not necessarily the one that fans have come to know and love over the past two decades. Instead, he is one of the variants, even though Hugh Jackman portrays the character. The film also establishes the backstory of this Wolverine, revealing through exposition that the humans were responsible for the deaths of the X-Men of his universe. Now, the Deadpool & Wolverine director, Shawn Levy, has finally revealed the reasons why the movie didn’t depict the demise of X-Men.
Shawn Levy says why X-Men deaths weren’t shown in Wolverine’s universe
In a recent interview, Shawn Levy explained that while the idea of visually depicting the X-Men’s deaths came up during conversations, they felt that it ultimately didn’t matter as much as the impact their deaths had on Wolverine and decided to focus on him instead.
“We ended up doing it with a soundscape and with sound design,” Levy told Collider. “We did talk about it. But ultimately, it felt like the specifics of those characters’ deaths don’t matter to this story as much as the way they haunt Logan. And so we chose to keep the focus on him.”
According to Ryan Reynolds, who portrays Deadpool in the movie, the lack of a visual portrayal of the deaths is potentially more stirring. “It’s a little bit what you don’t see is more haunting than what you do see,” he observed, before adding that he felt that if they showed the deaths, it could have “cheapen” the role they were supposed to serve in the narrative.
Reynolds went on to list the two things that he thought were the “biggest win” with the Wolverine character. He noted that Wolverine’s costume represents a form of penance that he is wearing as “a punishment that covers this body.” In the movie, Wolverine reveals that he wasn’t there when the humans mounted an attack on the X-Mansion and killed almost all the inhabitants.
The second thing that Reynolds listed is the visualization of Wolverine’s Berserker rage. The film enunciates the fact that Wolverine often ends up attacking his friends and allies during these bouts of fury. “Really kind of scratching that itch of Wolverine, you know, like the idea that the Berserker rage takes over, he kills and he can be to a certain degree, indiscriminate about that killing. And that is a big part of the shame,” Reynolds said.
