They called the movie Deadpool & Wolverine, but maybe the title should have been Deadpool & Wolverine & Everybody Else, given how many character and actor cameos were in it (if you’re reading this, that means you’re following Deadpool & Wolverine news, so you almost certainly already know that).

But underneath all the goofs and gore and the cameos (and the goofs about the cameos, and the gore in the goofs, and the cameos with gore), Deadpool & Wolverine is saying something about interconnected cinema. In making a movie about Deadpool trying to become part of the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse, whether they meant to or not, the folks behind Deadpool & Wolverine made a movie about the inherent flaw of Kang and the MCU’s multiversal ambitions.

[Ed. note: This piece contains really big spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine.]

D&W parcels out its update on our first-billed hero in flashbacks. Sometime before the movie started, Wade Wilson became preoccupied with a need to prove he “mattered.” Maybe this came from his girlfriend, Vanessa (though she encourages him to move past the idea, so maybe not). Maybe the blame falls on Cassandra Nova, who manipulates at least part of Wade’s flashback. It’s not exactly clear, which is a theme!

Despite being Wade’s entire motivation, Deadpool & Wolverine doesn’t have much to say about what “mattering” means to Wade. After our respective screenings, my colleagues compared notes; had we missed a line, or misinterpreted something? As a long-time comics reader and a student of continuity, I felt like I had a good handle on the answer, and why it’s so lightly put: Wade can’t spell out why he cares about “mattering” so much because he’s the only character in the movie who knows he’s in a movie. For better or for worse, what Deadpool & Wolverine means by “mattering” is to “be part of the main, ongoing canon.”

Consider:........

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