WATCH: ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ leans even deeper into homoerotica—with a little help from Madonna

Superhero movies haven’t exactly had the best run of late, with the once mighty “Marvel Cinematic Universe” earning some of its worst reviews and box office numbers over the past few years (which, for the record, are still making hundreds of millions of dollars, so… grain of salt!).

With its back against the wall, the MCU is betting big on two heroes to save the day: fan favorites Deadpool and Wolverine, who are teaming up for an ambitious crossover movie with a marketing campaign that, thus far, has been leaning into its homoerotic appeal.

Yes, the main hook of summer’s highly anticipated Deadpool & Wolverine seems to be: “Wait, are these two going to explore each other’s bodies?”

From the bromantic BFF necklace teaser poster sporting the cheeky tagline “COME TOGETHER” (get it???), to the intentionally suggestive, Dune 2-riffing popcorn buckets, it’s clear they’re embracing the homoeroticism.

And… we guess that’s a good thing? For those of us old enough to remember a time when entire movies were built around “gay panic” jokes, we suppose it’s a relief to see a blockbuster so gung-ho about spotlighting intimate male bonds.

Anyway, Deadpool & Wolverine‘s latest trailer continues to lean in, giving us little in terms of plot details but plenty of will-they-won’t-they kiss/kill each other moments between its titular stars.

Best we can tell, the story concerns itself with “The Merc With The Mouth” Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) being tapped by the timeline-maintaining Time Variance Authority (first introduced in Disney+’s Loki series) to recruit X-Men bad boy Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, in his new single daddy era) for a mission to save time and space as we know it.

Again, the new footage here is mostly focused on the touchy (in more ways than one) relationship between these two, who appear to begrudgingly find some common ground—including their regenerative healing powers, which means their brutal, bloody brawls could go on and on and on.

And even said fights are homoerotic! Gratuitous crotch shots, suggestive chokeholds, tension-filled staring contests—Deadpool and Wolverine are never not seconds away from either punching each other in the face, or ripping one another’s clothes off.

As if it wasn’t clear enough that Marvel was trying to court those sweet, sweet gay box office dollars, they went ahead and soundtracked the whole trailer to Madonna‘s epic “Like A Prayer.” Like, come on, we can’t resist Madge’s most blasphemous anthem!

Beyond the needle drops and references to being “soaking wet” with excitement, Deadpool & Wolverine does also boast more queer and queer-adjacent talent than your average superhero flick. Nonbinary The Crown star Emma Corrin is set to play the villainous Cassandra Nova, queer star Brianna Hildebrand returns as Negasonic Teenage Warhead—who even has a girlfriend this time around—as does gay comic actor Karan Soni as Deadpool’s friend/chauffeur.

Plus, Broadway legend Leslie Uggams returns as Deadpool’s blind, party-ready roommate, and none other than Jennifer Garner is set to reprise her role as Elektra, a character last seen on screen in her eponymous 2005 box-office bomb. (We’re putting money on Garner uttering some variation of her Love, Simon “you get to exhale now” speech in the movie.)

Whether or not Deadpool & Wolverine goes all in on the homoeroticism, consider our interest sufficiently piqued. The film hits theaters everywhere on July 26; you can watch the brand-new trailer below: