Here’s How That Surprising Character Returned for ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’

Deadpool & Wolverine’s trailer has finally arrived and included a few surprise appearances, including the TVA. However, some viewers may have been most surprised to see Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) alive and well at the trailer’s beginning.

Vanessa first appeared in Deadpool, where it was established she was Wade Wilson’s (Ryan Reynolds) fiancée. Their relationship managed to survive Wilson’s cancer diagnosis and his subsequent mutilation into Deadpool. In Deadpool 2, it’s revealed that the pair are working on starting a family. Unfortunately, things take a tragic turn early on, when one of Deadpool’s targets breaks into his home and accidentally kills Vanessa. Deadpool spends a long time grieving the death of Vanessa, and eventually, Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) tries to get Deadpool out of his funk by convincing him to join the X-Men.

Vanessa’s early death in Deadpool 2 was disappointing and a prime example of fridging. On top of that, the movies failed to make her a mutant and superhero, as she was in the comics. However, it can’t be denied that the movie is quite a touching exploration of grief. By the end, things are looking brighter for Deadpool. He seems able to accept Vanessa’s death and that he’s still needed in this life by his newfound family. In Deadpool & Wolverine, though, Vanessa is very much alive and is seen celebrating Deadpool’s birthday before his dive into the multiverse. So, what happened?

How Vanessa is alive in Deadpool & Wolverine

How Vanessa can appear in Deadpool & Wolverine is quite simple: time travel. It’s possible viewers of Deadpool 2 missed her rescue due to it occurring during the post-credits scene. The thing is, Deadpool hasn’t actually accepted Vanessa’s death, nor is he satisfied to live life without her. As a result, when he gets his hands on Cable’s (Josh Brolin) time travel device, he doesn’t hesitate to use it. The very first thing he does is go back to the night Vanessa died and prevent her death from happening. He also goes back to save Peter (Rob Delaney), who is also seen attending Deadpool’s birthday party in the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer.

Of course, Deadpool can’t do anything in moderation, so he decides to try to fix, well, everything while he’s in the past, including killing the alternate version of Deadpool from the X-Men movies and Ryan Reynolds as he’s reading the script for Green Lantern. Even viewers who saw the post-credits scene may have doubted if it was canon, given how outlandish it gets. Additionally, one might have questioned if Deadpool would actually come back to a world with Vanessa and Peter, considering how badly he had to have messed up the timeline. However, the trailer confirms that the post-credits scene is canon, and he has succeeded in returning to his old life with Vanessa.

Hopefully, the undoing of Vanessa’s death means she’ll get a better story arc this time. With Deadpool traveling the multiverse, he could run into other variants of Vanessa, too. Perhaps one of them could boast her mutant powers and superhero alias, Copycat.

(featured image: 20th Century Studios)