Ryan Reynolds has said that there are over one hundred references throughout the entire film, including Easter eggs, pop-culture references, cameos, and direct hits at other Marvel films.
Pre-Release
- The test footage alone contains references to Gwen Stefani, Juice Newton, Ricardo Montalbán, Sophie B. Hawkins, and Cobra.
- The first image of Deadpool's costume is a reference to a famous nude photo of Burt Reynolds laying on a bearskin rug.
- According to Reynolds, Deadpool's swords are named "Bea" and "Arthur." Doubles as a Mythology Gag, as comics Deadpool famously had an infatuation with Bea Arthur when she was still alive. He also wears a shirt with Arthur on it during his date with Vanessa.
- One promotional short has Deadpool killing Mario Lopez while exclaiming "Fuck you, Slater!" A.C. Slater was the name of Mario Lopez's character in Saved by the Bell.
- One poster for the film has a version of a Joker line from the 1989 Batman film, "Wait 'til you get a load of me."
- A promotional campaign for the movie is a parody of the Uncle Sam Wants You poster, with Deadpool declaring "You want ME."
- "Hi Tom!" in the test footage is a Take That! to former Fox producer Tom Rothman, who was infamously responsible for the Executive Meddling that bogged down the X-Men films for a while, including refusing to greenlight a bona fide Deadpool movie and butchering Deadpool himself in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
The Movie
- The Credits Gag in the intro, with silly but descriptive names for the cast and crew, were stolen... ahem, "borrowed" from Honest Trailers. At least according to Deadpool himself in the "Honest Trailers: Deadpool"
video. - In the opening "frozen moment" intro, one of the mercenaries has a Starbucks cup with "Rob L." written on it.
- During the full highway fight, some of the road signs that appear include "Fort (Ed) McGuinness", "Ditko Ave./(Tim) Wernick Parkway", "Leifeld [sic] St.", "(Fabian) Nicieza St.", and "Parker Blvd."
- Deadpool has an Adventure Time wrist watch and Hello Kitty moisturizer. There's also a generic unicorn plush that Deadpool spends some "me time" with, which is meant to be a reference to My Little Pony.
- Wade orders pizza from Feige's Famous Pizza, named after Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who also started his career as one of the producers for the first three movies in the X-Men Film Series.
- Also: "McAvoy or Stewart? These timelines are so confusing."
- Deadpool threatens to shoot someone in the head and then fuck the brain hole.
- When Wade Wilson first enters the Bad Guy Bar, a conversation is heard between some of the patrons. One of them is named Liefeld, who is actually Rob Liefeld himself, making a cameo.
- There is a waitress in Weasel's bar called Kelley, and Bob's wife is named Gail — after Deadpool comics writers Joe Kelly and Gail Simone.
- During Deadpool's twelve-bullet countdown, three consecutive misses are punctuated with "Shit!", "Fuck!", and "Shitfuck!".
- The Sister Margaret's Dead Pool board is covered with the names of famous people◊.
- Deadpool refers to Professor X as a "Heaven's Gate-looking motherfucker", and his mansion as "the Neverland mansion".
- While cutting off his own arm to escape, Deadpool gives a Spoiler warning for 127 Hours.
- While threatening to castrate the bar patron that insults her, Vanessa calls the guy "Fat Gandalf".
- Wade tells Vanessa to hakuna his tatas.
- Vanessa quotes Scooby-Doo's "Ruh-roh!" after seeing Wade's skill at ski-ball.
- There's an appearance from a Voltron arcade prize.
- The photo of Bernadette Peters in lingerie on Wilson's bag is from her role as Vilma Kaplan in Silent Movie.
- Wade comments on his compatibility with Vanessa, saying that she's like if he made her in a computer.
- When Wade said that he loves the fact that Vanessa quoted Star Wars, she corrects him and says she quoted Empire Strikes Back. Not only is this a Star Wars Shout-Out, but it echoes a conversation between Leonard and Penny in The Big Bang Theory.
- Wade wears a RENT T-shirt in the scene immediately following his cancer diagnosis.
- Wade promises Vanessa that in his next life, he will show up in front of her window with a boombox and play music by the band Wham!
- Deadpool calls the mysterious recruiter "Agent Smith."
- Wade mentions having a Liam Neeson nightmare, where Wade kidnapped the guy's daughter and Liam was having none of it. He mentions that after three movies, Neeson comes off more as a bad parent than anything for the repeated captures.
- We briefly see Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern (2011) on a picture in the mooks' car during the opening credits.
- In the Workshop, Deadpool calls Ajax "Posh Spice" and Angel Dust "less angry Rosie O'Donnell" and later "José Canseco".
- He also wonders if Evil Brit Ajax' real name is actually Basil Fawlty, as well as Kevin (Feige), Bruce, or Scott.
- Deadpool asks Angel Dust if she puts matches in her mouth due to an Oral Fixation, or because she's a huge fan of Sylvester Stallone.
- Weasel describes Deadpool's face as looking like "Freddy Krueger face-fucked a topographical map of Utah."
- Weasel jokes that Ajax and Angel Dust look like they're on their way to go see Blade II (a movie franchise in which Ryan Reynolds played Hannibal King).
- Deadpool says Negasonic Teenage Warhead looks like both Ellen Ripley from Alien³ and Sinéad O'Connor.
- Deadpool describes his roommate Blind Al as "the Robin to my Batman", and proceeds to reference The Seduction of the Innocent, suggesting Blind Al wants to sleep with him, just like Robin and Batman.
- When Colossus is dragging a handcuffed Deadpool away, Deadpool quotes "Dead or alive, you're coming with me!"
- When Deadpool sprays blood in Colossus's face, he shouts, "Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret!", a reference to the menstruation theme in that book.
- The Roaring Rampage of Revenge includes a narrow corridor brawl as a nod to Oldboy (2003).
- Deadpool calls Blind Al "Mrs. Magoo" and Ronnie Milsap.
- Wade says he's going to get Colossus to help him out by making him "an offer he can't refuse."
- Wade spends his second cab ride with Dopinder explaining why he thinks "the movie Cocoon is pure pornography."
- There's quite a few to the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- When talking about what being a superhero is like, Wade says they have it pretty good, getting origin stories and ensemble films.
- The scrapyard where the final battle takes place appears to house the remains of a helicarrier, similar but not identical to the ones from the MCU.
- In The Stinger, Deadpool also asks if the audience "were expecting Sam Jackson to show up in an eyepatch and a saucy little leather number."
- In the finale, Wade paraphrases "I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her" from Notting Hill.Wade: Now if you'll excuse me, I'm just a boy, about to stand in front of a girl and tell her... what the fuck am I gonna tell her?
- Wade staples a cutout of Hugh Jackman's face onto his own in the finale.
- The My Little Pony-esque unicorn plush reappears in the credits, where Deadpool is doing something to it that would've made Hasbro very angry if it was actual MLP merchandise. Just twice before in the film.
- The Stinger is a perfect recreation of the stinger from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
- Deadpool suggests Mel Gibson, Dolph Lundgren, or Keira Knightley for the role of Cable.
- One of the names Weasel pitches to Deadpool is Scaredevil.
- Wade says that cancer is a shitshow, "like Yakov Smirnoff opening for the Spin Doctors."
- While being held captive, Wade and a fellow prisoner discuss giving a Dutch oven to Meredith Baxter.
- Wade refers to Wolverine's testicles as "a pair of smooth criminals".
