“Deadpool & Wolverine” and… who? The Marvel hit’s cameos, by the numbers
If you couldn’t tell by the headline, this is full of spoilers!
We waited more than a week, so you’ve probably had enough time to see Marvel’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which has smashed several records, including the highest-grossing opening weekend for an R-rated film. The raunchy, ultra-violent third installment in the Deadpool series is estimated to have grossed more than $395 million so far, and it is filled to the brim with Marvel easter eggs and inside jokes for die-hard comic-book fans.
SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD!
OK, you can’t say we didn’t warn you.
One of the most-talked about parts of the film is the deep bench of past Marvel characters who make brief appearances in the film, including a bunch from the dark ages of Marvel movies—those that predated the classic Marvel Cinematic Universe films of the past 15 years or so. This period was when many classic Marvel properties were owned by 20th Century Fox, before Disney acquired the studio in 2019. All of the X-Men films were produced by Fox, and fans have long waited to see the two parallel Marvel universes merge. This is the first film to do it.
So we took this moment to look back at the films that featured the Marvel characters who make an appearance in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” how many films they appeared in, and how much they made at the US box office before they were resurrected in the hottest movie of the summer.
The character that had the largest cumulative amount of grossing films was…Happy Hogan? Jon Favreau’s character, who started off as Tony Stark / Iron Man’s valet and provided a lot of comedic relief, has been a consistent throughline across 10 of the Marvel Universe’s biggest blockbusters, including the Avengers and Tom Holland Spider-man films. Tally those films up, and films featuring Happy have raked in over $4.7 billion in the US.
For comparison’s sake, Wolverine’s eight prior films, which included most of the X-Men films, totaled $1.5 billion at the box office.
The “Deadpool & Wolverine” character with the least-grossing film history is the villain Bullseye, with only one film appearance (2003’s Daredevil), totaling $102.5 million.
