Deadpool & Wolverine’s repeated ‘frat boy gay jokes’ spark backlash from LGBTQ+ fans

Deadpool & Wolverine is in cinemas, but queer fans aren’t happy with the repeated use of sexuality as a punchline.

Following a questionable marketing campaign in which LGBTQ+ fans of the Mercenary with a Mouth and everyone’s favourite X-Man became frustrated at the parody of the pair as a couple, Deadpool & Wolverine has hit cinemas.

Starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in the MCU film’s titular roles, initial reviews for the film have not been overwhelmingly positive, and queer fans have picked up on one common thread that they’re not thrilled about.

That is, of course, the number of jokes about Deadpool and Wolverine getting their swords/claws into each other.

One viewer has called the flick “one of Marvel’s most conservative films” due to the “insane amount of gay panic humour” and another called the film “shockingly bad – from the CGI blood to the fratboy gay jokes.”

I snuck away from Fantasia to check out DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE…and I wish I hadn't.
It's shockingly bad – from the CGI blood to the fratboy gay jokes to the lack of stakes to the terrible villain (poor Emma Corrin!).
It's an unequivocal mess.https://t.co/jwDyKvGpL3

— Joe Lipsett (@bstolemyremote) July 25, 2024

Me when Deadpool makes the fifth joke in a row where the punchline is "being gay" or "I will get cancelled for that one"
pic.twitter.com/EEtWOurG4E

— Ethan is at #TIFF24 (@notfunEman) July 27, 2024

Other viewers have pointed out that both Deadpool and Wolverine serves as the MCU introduction for the X-Men, Marvel’s team of social outcasts who have long been accepted as an allegory for the queer experience.

Both Deadpool and Wolverine are canonically not heterosexual in their comic book origins, with the former being pansexual and the latter having an alternate universe version of himself who’s gay.

POV your watching Deadpool and Wolverine and they make another unfunny gay joke that they say Kevin Feige wouldn’t allow and then a random D-list marvel character appears out of nowhere as everyone around you points and claps pic.twitter.com/yHYpcELFXW

— Wong Updates (@WongUpdates) June 29, 2024

Other viewers have pointed out that the ‘gay jokes’ may have been more acceptable, had the pair followed up on any of them – and that Deadpool really wasn’t joking about his attraction to Wolverine.

I get people not liking what is perceived as cheap shots at gay ppl but, like… have they heard of deadpool before? It’s not a joke, he wants to fuck Wolverine very very badly. Also he’s canonically queer so where do we go from here

— Kat🌻 (@fkdinthehead13) July 29, 2024

I would have been fine with Deadpool making all those gay jokes as long as at some point he made out with Wolverine.

— Kevin (@KRB0719) July 29, 2024

The film also features The Crown‘s non-binary star Emma Corrin as the film’s big bad, Cassandra Nova – and a whole slew of cameos (but not Taylor Swift).

Deadpool & Wolverine is in cinemas now.

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