Recapping Deadpool and Wolverine's big-screen journeys before they join the MCU

Do you like Deadpool? Do you like Wolverine? Do you like ribald language and totally gratuitous splatter? Then Deadpool & Wolverine is the summer blockbuster for you.

The iconic comic book characters played by Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman make their Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) debut. It's a movie set to invert all we know about the franchise storyline, incorporating the Time Variance Authority (TVA) from the series Loki in a bid to explain how the once-deceased Logan is now ripping up the screen alongside the snarky, red-suited mercenary.

We appreciate that Deadpool and Wolverine have been around for a while now, so we're recapping their big-screen journeys so far. Scroll down to discover all you need to know.

DEADPOOL

In the first Deadpool movie (released in 2016), we're introduced to mercenary Wade Wilson
Diagnosed with terminal cancer, Wade leaves his new-found love Vanessa (Monica Baccarin)
He enlists for an experimental treatment designed to awaken latent mutant genes in his body but it goes wrong and transforms him into a scarred anti-hero
Dubbing himself Deadpool, he goes after Francis/Angel Dust (Ed Skrein), the man responsible
Along the way, Deadpool makes allies of X-Men remnants Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand)
Deadpool defeats Francis and reconciles with Vanessa who looks beyond his scars and says that she still loves him

The post-credits scene of Deadpool then tees up the arrival of Cable (Josh Brolin) in Deadpool 2 (2018)
When Vanessa is killed after an attempt on Wade's life, he becomes suicidal and attempts to blow himself up
Due to his mutant abilities, Wade survives and is recruited by Colossus to join the X-Men
Wade becomes aware of an unstable young mutant called Russell Collins (Julian Dennison) who is housed at an orphanage owned by the Essex Corporation
Russell is under threat from time-traveling mercenary Cable whose mission is to kill the boy
Wade organizes a team called X-Force to free Russell from a prison transfer convoy and protect him from Cable
However, all of the team ends up being arbitrarily wiped out before Wade learns the truth about Russell: with the help of the superhero Juggernaut, he is destined to become a serial killer who slaughters Cable's family
Wade persuades Cable to talk Russell down and change the course of the future but it is Wade's decision to take a bullet for the boy that ultimately changes Russell's mind
In a mid-credits sequence, Negasonic and her girlfriend Yukio repair Cable's time-traveling device for Wade. He uses it to save the lives of Vanessa and X-Force member Peter (Rob Delaney)
Wade also uses the device to kill both an alternate version of Wade Wilson and Ryan Reynolds after he finishes reading the screenplay for the comic book movie bomb Green Lantern (2011)

WOLVERINE

Hugh Jackman's Wolverine was introduced to big-screen audiences in the first live-action X-Men movie (released in 2000)
Introduced as a feral cage fighter, he is taken in by Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) where Logan eventually becomes one of the X-Men
Logan later becomes fiercely protective of Rogue (Anna Paquin) who can take people's life force with a single touch
He also falls for Jean Grey (Fame Janssen), later to become consumed by her psychic powers and transform into the Dark Phoenix
Logan finds himself caught in the battle between Xavier and Erik Lensherr/Magneto (Ian McKellen) who express competing ideologies over whether to protect mankind or destroy it

In X2: X-Men United (2003), Logan discovers more about the origins of the adamantium skeleton that has been grafted onto his bones and results in his metal claws
The trail leads back to the mysterious Colonel William Stryker (Brian Cox) who, many years earlier, had sought to use Logan as a biological weapon
Stryker was responsible for Logan's adamantium grafting but the latter ran away after the procedure and forgot how it happened
Stryker is looking to build his own version of Charles Xavier's Cerebro machine and wants to use it to destroy every mutant on Earth
With the unexpected assistance of Magneto and the rest of the X-Men team, Logan defeats Stryker and saves Xavier, but at the cost of Jean Grey's life

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) is loosely based on the X-Men comic book story arcs, Gifted and The Dark Phoenix Saga
Logan must grapple with the loss of Jean Grey before he and the rest of Xavier's X-Men realise she has been resurrected as the deadly Dark Phoenix
Jean is absorbed into Magneto's militant mutant faction who are fighting against the on-set of a man-made 'cure' for the mutant gene
In the final battle on Alcatraz, Jean can redeem herself and dies in Logan's arms

Logan's brief but amusing appearance in the reboot film X-Men: First Class (2011), where he tells the young Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to "go f**k" themselves, cues up his more substantial appearance in the sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
In Days of Future Past, Logan's consciousness is sent back in time from 2023 to 1973 to prevent the onset of mutant destruction
Logan must intercept the young Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) who is on course to kill scientist Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage)
Should Raven succeed in killing Trask, her DNA will be used to develop killer Sentinels that are capable of adapting to any mutant power
The Sentinels have been designed to seek out and destroy all mutants, which is destined to lead to their obliteration in the future
Wolverine and the X-Men succeed in foiling the Sentinels' development, establishing an alternate 2023 where the X-Men are alive and thriving, including the previously deceased Rogue, Jean Grey, and Scott Summers
Back in 1973, Logan is rescued by Raven, having disguised herself as Major William Stryker

The follow-up film X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) takes place in 1983 where the X-Men find themselves threatened by the newly awakened demi-god and master of all mutants (played by Oscar Isaac)
The youthful X-Men cross paths with Wolverine when he's still designated as Weapon X under William Stryker's cloak and dagger weapons program
Weapon X helps the X-Men liberate their colleagues and his memory is partially restored by the younger Jean Grey (Sophie Turner)

In Logan (2017), the ailing Wolverine finds himself washed-up and drunk while working as a limo driver on the Mexican border
Following the extermination of most of the world's mutants, Logan works to conceal Charles Xavier whose ageing brain causes dangerous shockwaves that render all mutants immobile
Wolverine is tasked with protecting an enigmatic young girl named Laura (Dafne Keen) who has escaped from an experimental testing program named Transigen run by scientist Xander Rice (Richard E. Grant)
Logan, Laura and Xavier make a break for the border with tragic consequences, resulting in Xavier's death
Logan and Laura eventually fall in with the remaining Transigen test subjects, all mutant children, who help Logan and Laura destroy Xander's forces known as the Reavers
It's revealed that Logan killed Rice's father two years earlier at the Weapon X facility
Rice reveals that no new mutants have been born due to genetically engineered crops created by Transigen and distributed through the world's food supply
Logan kills Rice and his cyborg deputy Donald Pierce before succumbing to fatal wounds that his regenerative powers cannot overcome
She and the children bury Logan, and before they depart, Laura tilts the cross on his grave marker to create an X