One of the things that Deadpool & Wolverine does successfully is bring its two titular characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the Wolverine in this film isn’t necessarily the one that fans have come to know and love over the past two decades. Instead, he’s one of a variety of characters, despite Hugh Jackman voicing the character. The film also establishes this Wolverine’s backstory, revealing through exposition that humans were responsible for the deaths of the X-Men in his universe. Now, Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy has finally revealed the reasons why the film didn’t depict the demise of the X-Men.

Shawn Levy explained in a recent interview that the idea of visually depicting the deaths of the X-Men came up in discussions, but they felt it ultimately wasn't as important as the impact their deaths had on Wolverine. So they decided to focus on him instead.

"We ended up doing it with a soundscape and with sound design," Levy told Collider. "We talked about it. But ultimately it felt like the details of those characters' deaths aren't as important to this story as the way they're pursuing Logan. And so we chose to keep the focus on him."

According to Ryan Reynolds, who plays Deadpool in the film, the lack of visual representation of the dead is potentially even more poignant. "It's kind of what you don't see is more haunting than what you do see," he noted, before adding that he felt showing the dead would have "cheapened" the role they were supposed to play in the story.