The most interesting Deadpool & Wolverine Easter Eggs you might have missed

A Deadpool movie isn’t a Deadpool movie without a slew of metatextual (or should that be metacinematic?) humor and Easter Eggs, the latter of which is defined as “hidden references, jokes, or messages that are woven into the fabric of a film and often go unnoticed during a casual viewing.” That’s why we’ve put together this list of some of the most interesting Deadpool & Wolverine Easter Eggs you might not have noticed your first time watching the film; what, we’re all going to watch Deadpool & Wolverine more than half a dozen times, right?

Warning: Major spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine ahead. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, please read the following article at your own discretion.

That’s a whole lotta Wolverines

After Deadpool is contacted by the Time Variance Authority, he takes it upon himself, in an effort to preserve his own timeline, to find a Wolverine. Of course, in this quest to find a Wolverine, he encounters a variety of different Logans than the one we’ve been accustomed to on the big screen.

Height-accurate Wolverine

One of the first Wolverines that Deadpool comes across is, despite the farce which Deadpool turns it into, actually one of the most comic book accurate ones; sitting at the bar, he looks identical to the Hugh Jackman Wolverine we’ve come to know over the years, hairstyle, musculature and all except for one glaring difference: the moment he steps down from his barstool to reveal he’s only five feet tall. It’s a noticeable discrepancy from the 6’2” Wolverine that Jackman has portrayed for the past 24 years but as we mentioned previously it’s spot-on with the comic books where Wolverine’s canonically listed at 5’3” and weighs in at 300 pounds.

As X-23 has demonstrated, being small in stature isn’t necessarily a deficit when you’re wielding unbridled ferocity and six adamantium claws but Wolverine’s less than imposing height makes more sense when you consider the inspiration behind the character, at least for esteemed X-Men writer John Byrne, who started writing for The Uncanny X-Men in 1977 and was behind such classic stories as “Proteus,” the “Dark Phoenix Saga” and “Days of Future Past.” According to Byrne, Wolverine’s inspiration is the 5’7” actor Paul D’Amato.

“My Wolverine is an actor whose name I don’t even know, who’s on camera for all of five minutes in a Paul Newman hockey movie called Slap Shot,” Byrne said in an interview with TwoMorrows’ Back Issue #4.

Crucified Wolverine

The Wolverine who Deadpool discovers that’s crucified to a giant X atop a mountain of skulls isn’t a biblical take on Logan, though the allusions to Wolverine as a martyr-like character who is able to endure incessant pain to save others thanks to his healing factor aren’t exactly subtle . The scene is actually an homage to one of the most iconic X-Men covers of all time, Uncanny X-Men #251 by Marc Silvestri.

Age of Apocalypse Wolverine

Another Wolverine that Deadpool comes across is missing a hand and has an even bigger duck-tailed coiffure than the normal version. This Wolverine is from a popular X-Men crossover from the 90s called the Age of Apocalypse, a bleak, alternate future where Professor Charles Xavier is dead and Apocalypse has succeeded in taking over the world.

Brown and Tan Wolverine

Deadpool comes across a Wolverine in his oft-used brown and tan costume whose claws can be seen reflecting the Hulk as he SNIKTs them free. This is in reference to Wolverine’s very first appearance in The Incredible Hulk #180 in 1974, where Wolverine and the Hulk face off in a brutal, intense fashion and more specifically, a rematch between the two in The Incredible Hulk #340 from October 1987, illustrated by Todd McFarlane.

Patch Wolverine

Yet another Wolverine is one wearing an eye-patch playing a presumably high-stakes card game at a card table. Deadpool refers to him by the name Patch, a pseudonym and alter ego which Wolverine uses as a disguise to infiltrate enemies during his time on the island of Madripoor (first appearing in Marvel Comics Presents #10 from September 1988).

Blade and Deadpool have beef?

One of the more surprising cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine is when Blade the Vampire Hunter of the 1998 Blade movie trilogy makes an appearance; when interacting with Deadpool, Blade tells the Regeneratin’ Degenerate point blank, “I don’t like you,” to which Deadpool replies, “You never did.” Although it’s easy to see why a terse, no-nonsense character like Blade wouldn’t be fond of the Merc with a Mouth, the line is also applicable to the real life situation between the actors who portray the characters as well.

Wesley Snipes, who portrayed Blade, and Ryan Reynolds, who we all know and love as Deadpool, appeared together in the third installment in the Blade trilogy, 2004’s Blade: Trinity. Reynolds played Hannibal King, a fellow vampire hunter who’s similarly fast-talking and wise-cracking to Deadpool; according to Reynolds, Snipes’ and Reynolds’ contrasting acting styles made for an uneasy relationship between the two on set.

“My personality is the polar opposite of Wesley,” Reynolds told IGN in 2012. “I never met Wesley, I only met Blade, and he is a method actor… whatever it takes for him or anyone else to get through that in a way that is artistically fulfilling to them, I have the utmost respect for,” he said, although he also admitted that he would actively try to make Wesley laugh and break character during filming.

“There’s a moment in the movie where I look up at Jessica and I swear to God, I didn’t even know the cameras were rolling anymore and I say, ‘He hates me, doesn’t he?’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah’,” Reynolds added.

“There’s another one where I do a dime store psychoanalysis of him where I say, ‘You ever thought about sitting down and talking with someone, getting in touch with your inner child, and also you might want to try blinking once in a while.’ He just looks at me like he’s gonna turn me into ass pulp,” Reynolds said.

Thankfully, it appears whatever animosity between Snipes and Reynolds, overblown or not, appears to have been squashed for Blade’s welcome cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine.

The Deadpool Corps is even more familiar than we thought

Much like Deadpool 2, with its inconspicuous Brad Pitt as “The Vanisher,” and Matt Damon and Alan Tudyk as a pair of rednecks arguing about toilet paper cameos, Deadpool & Wolverine features some cameos you may not have noticed upon first viewing. That’s because these cameos never show the actors’ faces, but features their voices: The revolver-toting, southern-drawled speaking Western/Cowboypool is voiced by Matthew McCoughnaghey and Nathon Fillion is the voice behind the levitating, propeller-beanie wearing Headpool. The vivacious, blonde-pigtailed Ladypool is voiced by none other than Ryan Reynolds’ wife, Blake Lively.

Adamantium Bones, Blake Lively and Gossip Girl

Speaking of Blake Lively, she’s mentioned during Deadpool & Wolverine’s over-the-top (even by Deadpool’s standards), gruesome introductory narrative.

While wielding Logan’s exhumed, adamantium bones as myriad weapons, Deadpool mentions that there are 206 bones in the human body – 207 if you count when he watches Gossip Girl.

Liefeld’s Feet

Before taking on the Deadpool Corps, as Deadpool and Wolverine enjoy a slow-mo stroll out sequence to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” where the latter finally reveals his long-awaited face mask, the two stand in front of a sneaker store named “Liefeld’s Feet.”

The store is a reference to Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld, a popular artist/creator during the 90s whose signature style completely revitalized the ailing New Mutants title and helped lead to a surge in comic book sales during that time period. Though Liefeld’s art was flashy and exciting, there was a running joke that he was unable to draw adequate feet for his characters, either leaving feet entirely out of most panels and covers or drawing them in oddly misshapen fashion.

Deadpool makes a reference to Liefeld in Deadpool 2 as well when he’s joking about Domino’s luck powers, saying, “Who came up with these powers? Probably a guy who can’t draw feet.”

What did you think of our list of the most interesting Deadpool & Wolverine Easter Eggs you might not have noticed on first viewing? Are there any interesting Deadpool & Wolverine Easter Eggs you want to share that we didn’t mention? Let us know in the comments.