Deadpool & Wolverine’s second trailer confirms the return of two X-Men movie villains who haven’t appeared in live-action in more than ten years.

The second Deadpool & Wolverine trailer reveals more mutant characters from previous X-Men movies who will make an appearance in the MCU Phase 5 movie. As Deadpool & Wolverine‘s July 2024 release date approaches, more and more details about the movie are being revealed. Deadpool & Wolverine‘s second trailer is packed with reveals and easter eggs, from Hugh Jackman’s full Wolverine costume to a sneaky nod at Deadpool’s creator, Rob Liefeld. Deadpool & Wolverine‘s story is also clearer now, with Wolverine’s tragic backstory suggesting that his entire universe was destroyed.

As shown in the trailer, Deadpool & Wolverine‘s main villain Cassandra Nova is a powerful telekinetic antagonist with little interest in attacking the titular duo head-on. Nova seems to have her headquarters in the Void; more specifically, inside the skull of a dead Ant-Man variant in his Giant-Man form. Outside, a small army of pruned mutant variants are safeguarding her. While Pyro’s appearance was previously confirmed by the first trailer and Toad was reportedly seen on set a few months before, the second Deadpool & Wolverine trailer confirms two mutants who hadn’t returned to live-action in thirteen and twenty-one years, respectively.

Where Lady Deathstrike And Azazel Previously Appeared In The X-Men Franchise

Lady Deathstrike and Azazel Only Made Small Appearances In Previous X-Men Movies

Kelly Hu’s Lady Deathstrike and Jason Flemyng’s Azazel can be spotted for a brief second in the second Deadpool & Wolverine trailer. Lady Deathstrike’s only live-action appearance was in 2003’s X-Men: United, where she served as William Stryer’s brainwashed henchwoman. Wolverine had a tough time fighting her at Stryker’s facility, as she possessed the same healing factor as Wolverine and wielded five long adamantium-coated fingernails on each hand. The only way Wolverine could defeat Lady Deathstrike was by injecting her with pure liquid adamantium in what may be one of the most brutal scenes in the whole X-Men movie franchise.

Azazel made his only movie appearance eleven years after Lady Deathstrike, in 2011’s X-Men: First Class, where he served as Sebastian Shaw’s right-hand man. Azazel helped Shaw exacerbate the tensions between the United States and Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and he recruited Tempest into the Hellfire Club and Mystique into the Brotherhood of Mutants. X-Men: Days of Future Past revealed that Azazel was killed by government operatives. Although the X-Men movies never acknowledged it explicitly, it’s likely that Azazel and Mystique’s brief time together in Magneto’s Brotherhood of mutants led to the birth of Nightcrawler.

X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn intended to make a direct sequel to First Class , but the studio chose to move ahead with X-Men: Days of Future Past , which is why characters like Azazel and Tempest were killed so abruptly.

How Lady Deathstrike And Azazel Fit Into Deadpool & Wolverine

Lady Deathstrike And Azazel Seem To Work For Cassandra Nova In Deadpool & Wolverine

Lady Deathstrike and Azazel return in Deadpool & Wolverine, seemingly as Cassandra Nova’s bodyguards in the Void. Cassandra Nova appears to take refuge from the all-consuming Alioth inside the skull of a dead Ant-Man variant who died while in his Giant-Man form. To fend off invaders like the TVA, Deadpool, and Wolverine, it seems as though Cassandra Nova either recruited mutant variants she met in the Void or ripped them from their universes. After all, Cassandra Nova’s powerful telepathic and telekinetic abilities allow her to manipulate less powerful mutants.

The fact that Lady Deathstrike and Azazel are serving Cassandra Nova despite coming from very different eras within Fox’s X-Men movie timeline suggests that they are variants who were sent to the Void by the TVA for disrupting the course of their home universes. However, it’s possible that their branches of the Sacred Timeline were destroyed altogether, either by a cataclysmic event or by Loki’s tampering with the multiverse in the Loki season 2 finale. Either way, Cassandra Nova’s minions don’t have many chances of survival, as Alioth, Deadpool, Wolverine, and Cassandra Nova herself can kill them without much effort.

All Other Returning X-Men Characters Confirmed For Deadpool & Wolverine

Azazel and Lady Deathstrike return alongside other mutants who had been absent from the X-Men movies in a long while. Aaron Stanford plays Pyro in Deadpool & Wolverine eighteen years after his last appearance in X-Men: The Last Stand. Likewise, Ray Park reprises his role as Toad a whooping twenty-four years after his only X-men appearance back in X-Men. Toad had been spotted on the Deadpool & Wolverine set alongside Sabretooth, which means that Sabretooth’s return is also likely to be confirmed by future trailers or promotional images.

Almost every character from Fox’s X-Men movie franchise could return for a brief cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine. So far, only Juggernaut actor Vinnie Jones and Jean Grey actor Famke Janssen have explicitly denied their involvement in the movie. Some of the characters who are most likely to appear, at least in a small Deadpool & Wolverine role, include Rebecca Romjin’s Mystique, eighteen years after X-Men: The Last Stand, Ian McKellen’s Magneto, ten years after X-Men: Days of Future Past; and James Marsden, also ten years after his cameo at the end of the same movie.