How is Vanessa alive in ‘Deadpool 3?’

The MCU has managed to hold onto the lie that it’s actually a movie franchise and not just one very long TV show ever since 2008, but I think Deadpool & Wolverine might the one that finally convinces us they need to start adding a recap at the start of these things. With Deadpool 2 releasing a whole six years ago, audiences would be entirely forgiven for hardly remembering the specifics of the last time we saw Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with the Mouth on our screens. Even so, some things still stick in the memory.

If you cast your mind back 2018’s sequel, you might find yourself thinking “Josh Brolin showed up but not as Thanos, right?” or “Didn’t Wade have tiny baby legs at one point?” Another rogue memory that might resurface is “I’m pretty sure Vanessa died.” Yup, Wade Wilson’s one true love, Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin), very definitely popped her clogs in Deadpool 2, with our anti-hero’s arc for the rest of the movie seeing him come to terms with her death and letting her go.

Naturally, then, a fair few are confused by the new Deadpool 3 trailer depicting Wade celebrating his birthday surrounded by his loved ones, including a very much alive Vanessa. I mean, we know this one’s made by Marvel Studios and not 20th Century Fox, but that’s a pretty big continuity error to slip under Kevin Feige’s nose. So what’s the deal with the revivification of Vanessa Carlysle?

How is Vanessa Carlysle back from the dead in Deadpool & Wolverine?

No, this isn’t just a case of Marvel being lazy and not bothering to watch back Deadpool 2. In actual fact, the answer to Vanessa’s miraculous resurrection is found in Deadpool 2 itself. If you are struggling to remember what this is, then you may be guilty of leaving the theater back in 2018 before the post-credits scene dropped and probably haven’t watched the film again since. I’m not angry with you, by the way, just disappointed.

The epic mid-credits sequence saw Deadpool use Cable’s time-travelling watch to go back in time and change the timeline by stopping his enemies from killing Vanessa in the first place. He then also rescues Peter from the great X-Force massacre that occurred later in the film — Peter is likewise seen at Wade’s birthday party in the trailer, along with Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), so it seems we can assume Wade went back and saved all the X-Force members.

The scene also saw him well and truly detonate the fourth-wall by travelling into X-Men Origins: Wolverine and executing his alternate self (allowing for a Hugh Jackman cameo via archival footage, that in retrospect previewed his Deadpool 3 return) and, last but not least, killing himself — or Ryan Reynolds — before he signed on to make 2011’s Green Lantern. We are extremely eager to see how Deadpool & Wolverine can upstage that level of insanity in its own post-credits scene, but with the entire MCU sandox to play in it, you know it’s going to be something special.