8 Ways That Deadpool 2 Sets Up Future X-Men Movies

Back in 2016, Deadpool was a bit of a risk for Fox, as no R-rated Marvel movie had ever been attempted before and its irreverent approach to the genre might not have been embraced by wider audiences. As we all know, though, it turned out to be the highest grossing X-Men movie ever made and launched Ryan Reynolds' anti-hero into the big leagues. Now that Deadpool 2 is here, then, it's a very different story. Perhaps because the studio believes Wade Wilson's exploits could well have more life left in them than the mainline X-Men films, this sequel does a lot of heavy lifting to set up future installments of Deadpool's corner of the X-Universe. Think The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but imagine that it actually worked. In particular, it paves the way for the upcoming X-Force spinoff movie, to be directed by Drew Goddard and confirmed to be starring Reynolds, Josh Brolin as Cable and Zazie Beetz as Domino. But what are the most significant ways that Deadpool 2 sets the scene for more? Well, read on to find out. Be warned, though, we're going to go into full spoiler territory here. If you've yet to see the film, bookmark this page and come back when you have. Deadpool Sr. And Jr. In Deadpool 2's first act, Wade and Vanessa decide they're ready to have a kid together. However, their plans for the future are tragically cut short when Vanessa's murdered by enemies of DP's who shoot up their apartment. The first post-credits scene, however, reveals that Wade was able to go back in time and save his "future baby momma," meaning that the couple can go on to have a kid, after all. Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have confirmed that an early idea for Deadpool 2 was to have Wade come to grips with fatherhood. Clearly, they're toying with this idea, then, and now it's perfectly set up for it to happen in Deadpool 3. Could we hear the pattering of tiny mutant feet in the future of the franchise? There's comic book precedent for this, of course, as Wade had a daughter, Ellie Camacho, with an old flame of his, Carmelita. Deadpool 2099 is also Warda Wilson, a different daughter of Wade's whose mother is Shiklah, the queen of the underworld. Furthermore, while discussing having a kid, Wade opens up about his unhappy childhood thanks to his horrible father. The history of Mr. Wilson has changed a lot over the years in the comics, so there's much to mine if they decide to explore more about Wade's parentage in future movies. Mr. Sinister Is (Still) Out There Remember the post-credits scene of X-Men: Apocalypse? It featured a mysterious suited man retrieving a vial of Wolverine's blood from Alkali Lake, and filing it away with other vials he had in his briefcase. The final shot revealed he worked for EssexCorp. This could only mean one thing: Nathaniel Essex AKA Mr. Sinister was coming. Except, it turned out he wasn't arriving anytime soon. We'd expected him to show up in Logan, though it could be theorized that Sinister's behind Alkali-Transigen's efforts to wipe out mutantkind in that film. Before Deadpool 2 came out, it was also rumored that the supervillain would show up there instead. Obviously, though, that didn't turn out to be the case. That said, the film does name-check Mr. S. The abusive orphanage Russell lives at is The Essex Home for Mutant Rehabilitation, where the kids are abused and tortured for being mutants. That sounds like just the sort of evil place that Mr. Sinister would endorse, doesn't it? At this point, then, it seems that Sinister's becoming the X-Men universe's version of Marvel's Thanos, with hints foreshadowing his later arrival. But when will he show his face? That's actually unclear, as we know that Jon Hamm was set to play him in The New Mutants in a post-credits scene. That's been cut, however, with Antonio Banderas brought in as another villain instead. X-Force X-Tinguished Much was made before Deadpool 2 of the fact that it was setting up the incoming X-Force spinoff movie. To play the team, Fox got hold of a bunch of awesome actors. Including Terry Crews as Bedlam, Bill Skarsgard as Zeitgeist and even, for the briefest second, Brad Pitt as The Vanisher! Surprisingly, though, the group's actually treated as a bit of a joke in the film itself. As they head out on their first mission after being recruited by DP, the various X-Forcers die in hilarious Final Destination-y ways as they parachute from their plane and end up in front of trucks, get caught in trash compactors or fly right into the blades of a helicopter. Ah, well. R.I.P. X-Force. We hardly knew you. So, what does this mean for the team's standalone? Interestingly, the time-traveling post-credits scenes don't resurrect all of the members, which suggests that most of them really are dead. As such, we can presumably rule these characters out from appearing in the spinoff movie. Not that we expected Pitt to sign up as a supporting player in the X-Men franchise, mind you. Famous Familial Ties Deadpool 2 introduces a couple of new additions who, as well as being great characters themselves, have familial ties to some X-Men icons. Though these connections aren't elaborated on in the film itself, it's possible that they will be in future movies. The big one, of course, is Cable. As fans will know, his real name is Nathan Summers. Yup, he's the son of Scott Summers AKA Cyclops. In the comics, his mother is Madeline Pryor, a clone of Jean Grey. Just to simplify things a little, though, it would be easy to make the actual Jean Grey his mom in the movie universe. Seeing as Josh Brolin's set to appear in at least three more films as Cable, we feel pretty confident that the reveal of his true parentage will come out at some point. No doubt Deadpool will have some great jokes to say about it, too. Juggernaut also appears here and is a much more faithful version of the villain from the comics than Vinnie Jones' terrible take on the character in X-Men: The Last Stand. His odd backstory is even alluded to at one point, as there's a scene that begins with him and Russell discussing that Juggernaut wears his stone helmet to keep his brother from reading his thoughts. The big mutant, real name Cain Marko, then mentions that his brother's in a wheelchair. Marko is indeed referencing the most famous wheelchair-user in the X-Men universe. In the comics, he's Charles Xavier's step-brother, as their parents married each other when they were kids. Literally brains versus brawn, the pair never got on. Now that Juggernaut's a part of continuity again, it would be interesting to see this sibling rivalry explored a little in one of the mainline X-Men movies. Hope Summers When he goes back in time to save Deadpool, Cable takes a moment to reveal the name of his daughter: Hope. It's obviously a loaded name in this instance, as it symbolizes Cable giving the Merc hope and saving his life, as well as the cyborg himself learning to hope again. It also opens the door for a character who could potentially be very important in the future of the X-Men franchise, though. In the comics, Hope Summers isn't actually the biological sprog of Cable but is the Mutant Messiah, the first mutant baby born after Scarlet Witch drives mutantkind to near extinction. An Omega Level Mutant and the heir to the Phoenix Force, she's prophesied to save her people and comes under Cable's protection, being raised as both his daughter and sidekick in battle (think Big Daddy and Hit-Girl). Fox might not have any plans for Hope at all, but just the mention of her here could open some doors if that merger with Disney goes through. You see, Hope's essentially the Macguffin of the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline, which could be on the cards if Marvel Studios get a hold of these characters. Together with the Phoenix Force, it would be a neat move for Marvel to make use of the concepts introduced in recent X-Men films. Vanessa (And Peter) Lives! As we've said before, Deadpool gets a chance to fix some of his mistakes from earlier in the film by using Cable's time-spinner to go back in time during the post-credits scenes. The funniest of these are obviously the skits at the expense of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Green Lantern, but it's the first two scenes that will surely prove to be more important to the future of the franchise. First off, it was a shock at the beginning of the movie when Vanessa died. Killing the hero's girlfriend to raise the stakes at the beginning of the sequel is a bit of a tired action movie trope, so it was disappointing that Deadpool 2 was playing it straight. Thankfully, Vanessa's death was unwritten by the end of the film, which suggests that Morena Baccarin will be back for, if not X-Force, then a possible Deadpool 3. But where could her character go next? Well, we've already suggested that she could have her and Wade's kid. In a more proactive sense, though, Vanessa could even become part of X-Force herself. In the comics, she's a mutant known as Copycat because of her mimicry abilities. Deadpool writers Reese and Wernick have previously said that they'd be open to exploring Vanessa's mutant powers in the future, so we wouldn't rule this out. Secondly, Deadpool also goes back and saves good old Peter from dying along with the rest of the X-Force. As Wade feels bad for the ordinary guy, he encourages him to go home and keep safe. However, Rob Delaney's a lot of fun in the role and the fans have taken to the character, so we wouldn't be surprised if Peter came back as comic relief in X-Force. Especially as T.J. Miller has been confirmed to not be returning as Weasel. Deadpool With Time Travel? So Deadpool can time travel now? That could have serious repercussions for all of reality. As the post-credits scenes make clear, Cable's time-spinner allowed Wade to do whatever he liked, even revisiting previous X-Men timelines and movies as well as encountering that Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds. Clearly, giving Deadpool the ability to traverse through history allowed the writers a completely blank canvas to do whatever they wanted and it provided a hilarious, inventive coda to the movie. But was this just a one-off gag to end Deadpool 2 on a high? As far as we know, Wade could just keep on hopping around time. Imagine the Merc with a Mouth as a kind of crazed, murderous Doctor Who. Knowing Deadpool, though, the next film could easily ignore continuity and not even reference the fact that Wade got the time-spinner working again. Alternatively, maybe it'll take that concept and run with it, and make time travel an important plot point. It might be difficult to use it without removing all jeopardy and tension from the film, but it could also lead to a lot of great jokes and creative sequences. Wade's New F-Word Before the credits, the final scene of Deadpool 2 features Wade Wilson finally becoming part of a family, learning that it's not just an "F-word" to be feared. Though - at this point - he's lost Vanessa, he's found himself part of a ragtag group of friends. Namely, Cable, Domino, Russell, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Given the way that the final moments of the film position them as a family, it's likely that all six characters will team up again in X-Force. But will they actually become the militant mutant hero team of the title? As said earlier, the actual group named X-Force in this film were written out extremely quickly and mostly treated as a joke. However, the gift of time travel does mean that they can easily come back in the spinoff. It's hard to tell right now, as Deadpool 2's writers recently revealed that the line-up of X-Force in their own movie has yet to be decided - except that it'll obviously contain Cable and Domino. Seeing as it seems that X-Force is taking the place of Deadpool 3, though, we imagine that there will be a fair amount of connective tissue between it and Deadpool 2. So we wouldn't be surprised to see all of Wade's new family putting in appearances.