How Old Is Deadpool? [And Does He Age?]
Many Marvel superheroes and characters have healing abilities, making them almost immortal – but none like Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool. He can’t die even if he’s incinerated and turned to ash. Wade also doesn’t age, but it’s hard to determine how old he is due to conflicting timelines in the comics and the movies. So, how old is Deadpool?
Depending on the presented timeline, Wade Wilson is usually between 25 and 35 years old. He’s said to have been born in 1973, but some storylines (especially in the movies) already have him as a soldier in the mid-70s.
It doesn’t really matter when he was born, though, because he will virtually remain the same age forever. In X-Force/Cable: Messiah War #1, we see a 1000-year-old Deadpool, still alive and well, and he doesn’t seem to age at all. That means his healing factor might be even better than Wolverine’s, but there’s a catch. Keep reading to learn more about Deadpool and his age.
When Was Deadpool Born?
It’s hard to determine exactly when Wade Wilson was born because alternative storylines present a different character background. There were so many time shifts that it’s almost impossible to get an accurate answer.
For instance, one storyline has Wilson already dying of cancer at age 17, but the story’s events are happening after he’s already served in the army. Then again, the 2020 storyline called Deadpool: The End has his daughter already being 97 years old, while he doesn’t age at all. Do you see how quickly you can get it twisted?
The consensus is that Deadpool was born in 1973 in Canada, which plays into the main Marvel universe timeline, where he got into the Weapon X program in the 1990s when he was in his early 20s.
As for his childhood, Wade gives us conflicting memories in different stories. He recalls that his father left his mother while she was pregnant, so after she gave birth to Wade, she became abusive of him. Another time, he remembers that his mother left, so his father became abusive, while in a third instance, his dad left them when Wade was around five.
However, the timeline of his birth doesn’t match well with the timeline in the Deadpool and X-Men movies, because in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a Young Wade Wilson, and John “Logan” Howlett battle together in the Vietnam War under William Stryker. So, Wilson had to be born decades earlier, at least.
How Old Is Deadpool in Comics?
As I said, Deadpool’s exact age is a bit unclear, but we do know some facts that could help. For instance, we know that he attempted suicide at 19-years old. It happened several years before he underwent the Weapon X experiments in the early-to-mid-90s, which would put his date of birth somewhere around the early 1970s.
However, after he receives the healing factor from Wolverine in the program, Deadpool stops aging – or at least, it’s vastly decelerated. To add to it, Wolverine’s healing factor had been modified specifically for Wilson to keep his cancer in check, which probably made it even better.
As he doesn’t age, Wade is always physically around his mid-to-late-20s in the comics. Still, there are some storylines where we see him at around 800 and even 1000 years old. In Cable #13, the 800-year-old Deadpool is still alive and well, but his healing factor decelerates.
That means he ages slightly, just like Wolverine, but even slower. It’s uncertain if he’d ever die of old age, though. Well, at least it was before Wilson crossed paths with Thanos.
Does Deadpool Die of Age?
Deadpool never dies of old age, injury, or any other way. One might automatically conclude that it’s because of the healing factor he received from Wolverine, but that is only partially true. As we’ve seen in the Old Man Logan storyline and the movie Logan, Wolverine does age eventually, but at much slower rates.
However, it happens because adamantium in his skeleton is slowly poisoning him, and the fact that Deadpool doesn’t have adamantium in him could mean that he ages even slower. Still, as I’ve mentioned, we’ve seen his healing factor slow down a bit in Cable #13, and he does have cancer that could grow stronger as his healing factor weakens.
However, we’ve never got a comprehensive, definitive answer because Deadpool doesn’t die of old age in either the comics or the movies. While it would be up in the air, all uncertainty about Wade Wilson’s immortality had been removed when Deadpool, Thanos, and Death herself found themselves in a love triangle.
You see, Thanos loved Death, but Death loved Deadpool, and Deadpool loved her. However, he could only see her if he died. Out of jealousy, Thanos coursed Wade never to die, being banned from Death’s realm forever. That means he literally can’t die in any way – not even old age.
Even if you incinerate him and turn him to ash, he can regenerate from the tiniest particle, heal, and regrow back to life. He eventually died in the comics, though, and it’s tragic as much as it’s beautiful.
How Old Was Deadpool When He Died?
So, Wade couldn’t die and enter Death’s realm, but he couldn’t access Heaven or Hell either. He made a deal with the King of Hell, Mephisto, to be able to die only if he ever killed his only daughter, Ellie, first. So, even if he got disintegrated, the deal would return him to life.
In Deadpool: The End storyline, Ellie is 97 years old and will soon die of old age. Wade can’t let that happen, so he sets out on a quest to kill Death. Ellie eventually stops him, claiming that she has had a full life and doesn’t want to live forever.
So, they take a neutrino bomb tethered to a micro-black hole with a Mobius chain. Basically, it incinerates them while the black hole devours the blast and collapses on itself in a split second, leaving nothing behind – not even a particle that Deadpool could eventually regenerate from.
That’s the eventual, true death of Deadpool, as he finally manages to break the curse and join his one true love, Death, in the afterlife. But, the deal with Mephisto clearly stated that he had to kill his daughter to break the curse and die, so how was all this possible? As it turns out, there was a loophole in the deal, and of course, Deadpool used it.
As he was adamant about killing Death, but Ellie didn’t want that, the only way she could’ve stopped her father was if she killed them both. She wouldn’t have done it if Wade hadn’t forced her into it. Therefore, he’s responsible for her death, fulfilling his part of the deal with Mephisto.
The deal also had him becoming the new King of Hell, living there forever in harmony with Death while Mephisto is chained as Wade controls his soul.
How Old Is Deadpool in Deadpool 1&2?
Deadpool is between 35 and 45 years old in the movies, birth-wise, but due to him receiving the healing factor, he’s physically around 25-30 years old without aging. It’s different from the comics where Wade’s born in the 1970s, as he’s already a soldier by that time in the movies’ timeline and continuity.