Ryan Reynolds Is Bringing In X-Men Characters For Deadpool 3

X-Men characters Colossus, Yukio, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead are rumored to be returning for Deadpool 3.

By Chris Snellgrove | Updated

Colossus, Deadpool, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead in Deadpool

Because it will be the first R-rated film that Disney has allowed into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fans were already excited to see Deadpool 3 and how the famous “merc with a mouth” would react in a world full of Avengers, gods, and Hulks. That excitement reached a fever pitch with the revelation that Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine would be joining Deadpool on a kind of cosmic road trip. Now, X-Men fans have even more to look forward to: The Direct reports that three popular franchise characters will return for this third movie, including Colossus, Yukio, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

Yukio and Negasonic Teenage Warhead in Deadpool 2

Starting with the very first Deadpool movie, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead have always served to represent the X-Men as generally do-gooder mutants that contrast with Deadpool’s bloody antics and much more flexible moral code. And Deadpool 2 introduced us to Yukio, a fan-favorite character whose bubbly personality contrasted with both Deadpool’s sarcasm and the grumpiness of her girlfriend, Negasonic. Now, Deadpool 3 will be bringing these characters back to the big screen, and we’re excited to see how Wolverine interacts with them.

That’s partly due to the fact that we don’t know exactly which Wolverine Deadpool is going to pluck from the timeline using Cable’s time travel technology. Are we getting the grizzled Wolverine ready to lay down his life that we saw in Logan, or the more amnesiac character we saw in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, when he and Deadpool first shared the screen together? For that matter, could this be a Wolverine from the dark Days of Future Past future, or will Deadpool 3 bring us a Wolverine from the happier restored timeline?

All of these are good questions, but we have a feeling that Deadpool 3, like its predecessors, may not be that concerned with what is or is not canon. In earlier movies, when Deadpool was told that he had to see “the professor,” he asked whether it would be “McAvoy or Stewart,” referencing the two major actors to ever play Professor Xavier. Like his comic counterpart, Deadpool is constantly making “meta” references that signify his awareness that he is in a movie, so we’re pretty sure both Deadpool and the filmmakers involved are going to focus more on what is cool and funny than what is canonically accurate.  

Interestingly, while their return for Deadpool 3 has not yet been confirmed, we have reason to believe that some other mutants will be returning for the sequel. For example, since the plot largely revolves around Cable’s time travel technology, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Josh Brolin return as the cranky mercenary from the future. Additionally, Ryan Reynolds recently tweeted “X-Force will live forever” along with a picture of Domino (played by Zazie Beetz) and Bedlam (played by Terry Crews), so consider them very likely to pop up.

It seems like damning Deadpool 3 with faint praise at this point, but the film is most definitely the most-anticipated Marvel movie. Reception to Quantumania was lukewarm across the board, and the future of Marvel Phase 5 is largely in flux thanks to the legal troubles of Kang star Jonathan Majors. With any luck, Deadpool 3 will be a success that reminds Disney it’s okay to create great standalone films rather than making movies that spend all their time simply setting up other movies.