She-Hulk Introducing Deadpool To The Marvel Universe?
Could it be?
In spite of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law‘s eponymous lead assuring viewers that her series is a legal show and not a superhero series, with only two episodes in and a third about to drop, the show is already delivering more guest appearances from established MCU stars than your average Disney+ series. The first two episodes starred Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk and the second saw the long-awaited return of Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky/The Abomination. We’ll soon be seeing Benedict Wong as the Sorcerer Supreme and Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil. But a new theory suggests rather than an MCU return, the final episode of She-Hulk‘s Season 1 will give us an MCU debut– specifically, Ryan Reynolds’s MCU debut as Deadpool.
In a theory put forth by CBR, a post-credits scene for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law will feature the first canonical MCU appearance of the Merc with a Mouth. The CBR team argues that since both Deadpool and She-Hulk are known from breaking the fourth wall, Tatiana Maslany’s series would be the perfect way to acknowledge Wade Wilson’s entrance into the usually much more family-friendly MCU. In fact, CBR thinks it may be eventually revealed that–rather than talking to the audience–Jennifer Walters has been talking to Deadpool the entire time.
The folks at CBR don’t have a completely bad theory here. We’ve only been able to see two of the nine episodes so far, but in both cases the end-credits scenes were humorous ones, and Deadpool certainly lends himself well to comedy. Then, of course, there’s Wade Wilson’s occupation. In her day job Jennifer Walters counts super-powered criminals among her clients and Deadpool certainly fits the bill. It could be that Wilson’s introduction to the MCU will start with him behind bars, and that would be fitting, wouldn’t it? After all, the MCU has remained decidedly G to just barely PG-13 all these years, and in Deadpool the titular merc pays for sex with Skee-Ball tickets. You’d think–if Rogers were still around–the second Wilson stepped through the Fox/Disney portal, Captain America would be waiting to knock him out and put the cuffs on him.
Which brings up another reason why She-Hulk could make a perfect entry point for Deadpool; it’s done more than most MCU projects to push the envelope as far as adult content. The first episode includes two conversations about Captain America‘s sex life (or lack thereof), and the end-credits scene includes just about the closest an MCU character has come to dropping an f-bomb on screen.
Where we would take issue with CBR’s theory is the notion that it’s Deadpool that Jen Walters has been talking to the whole time. First of all, Walters and Wilson are both known for breaking the fourth wall. Talking to another character the viewer can’t see isn’t breaking the fourth wall; it’s just dialogue. It would be like when we find out in 2013’s Iron Man 3 that Tony Stark was talking to a napping Bruce Banner the entire time. So if Jen is talking to Deadpool, then she’s not breaking anything. Second and more importantly, why would Jen be confiding in Deadpool? We all may love the guy, but Jen would see him as nothing more than a deranged mass murderer. Even if he were her client, she wouldn’t talk to him any more than she absolutely needed to.
Maybe we’ll know more on Thursday; that’s when the third episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law drops on Disney+ whether Deadpool’s there or not.
