Now that Deadpool & Wolverine is available on home media and streamable with a Disney+ subscription, one can pause the 34th of the Marvel movies in order to their heart’s content and really take in its many Easter eggs. However, if you’re among the few who thought they spotted a subtle shoutout to Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, a movie Russell Crowe has no problem defending, I regret to inform you that this particular Easter egg has been debunked. Not to worry though, as even Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy thought it was legit.
Here’s the deal: there are a lot of objects and set pieces from past Marvel movies, both MCU-related and ones from then-20th Century Fox, that are scattered throughout The Void when Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman’s Logan are adventuring through it. Additionally, there’s a colonial ship in the background for one scene, and some theorized that this was the same ship from Master & Commander, another Fox production. Shawn Levy thought this was indeed the case when he appeared on Entertainment Weekly’s Awardist podcast, saying:
I think that the answer is yes.
At the time, Levy assumed this was an Easter egg Deadpool & Wolverine’s visual effects team came up with, but after the interview, the director checked with the VFX department and learned that this ship wasn’t a Master & Commander callback after all. He wrote in a follow-up email:
[It] was a generic ship from their library. Then we changed its color and made custom sails. So it’s a pure DP&W ship.
If Shawn Levy could be fooled, then hats off to the VFX department for their work customizing that generic ship. Alas, now Deadpool & Wolverine is officially lacking in any Master & Commander representation… not that this detracts from the movie’s quality at all, it just would have been a fun nod to a non-Marvel Fox cinematic offering from way back when. Back during the aforementioned EW interview, Ryan Reynolds also mentioned that one of history’s most famous ships was also considered for dropping into The Void:
Also, the Titanic was one option, as well, and then it changed a few times.
The Titanic also would have been interesting to see, although given that the aforementioned ship is just barely seen, I don’t blame Deadpool & Wolverine’s VFX department for just tweaking a default ship that was available to them. And while things didn’t work out with Master & Commander in the threequel, this makes me wish even more that the 2003 flick was available for streaming. Seriously, let’s make this available for those with a Hulu subscription to load up!
Now that Deadpool & Wolverine has played to the masses and become both the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time and the second highest-grossing of the 2024 movie releases, next up on the upcoming Marvel movies slate is Captain America: Brave New World, which comes out on February 14, 2025. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the biggest MCU updates.