Deadpool 1 + 2 Revisited: How the Legendary Mercenary with a Mouth Changed Superhero Movies Forever

Deadpool and Wolverine are finally hitting theaters soon. The long-awaited team-up has fans frothing at the mouth and the box office skyrocketing with potentially record-breaking numbers. So now seems like a good time to revisit the first two Deadpool films to see how this franchise got started and how well it holds up.

It’s easy to forget this given the success of both the previous films and the current cultural ubiquity of Deadpool and Wolverine, but there was a time when a Deadpool movie seemed like an impossible pipe dream. Various attempts at a film adaptation of the beloved fourth-wall-breaking antihero spent a decade stuck in development hell before leaked test footage finally greenlit the first film in 2014. So after all this time, did the final product live up to expectations? Let’s discuss.

Deadpool (2016) Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool

Wade Wilson, played by Ryan Reynolds,…