One of the biggest regrets that many comic book movie fans have is that the opportunity never presented itself to have Deadpool and Wolverine crossover on the big screen. The timing just never quite worked out, with Hugh Jackman retiring from his career-defining role right around the same time that Ryan Reynolds finally completed his decade-long mission to give the Merc with a Mouth a solo movie that finally did the character justice.
Ironically, both properties are now under the control of Marvel Studios following Disney’s acquisition of Fox and while Deadpool 3 is officially in active development, reportedly beset by rumors of behind-the-scenes discontent over the movie’s eventual rating, Jackman has consistently reiterated that his time as Logan is definitively over, no matter how often his close friend and online arch-nemesis Reynolds attempts to convince him to return for one last outing.
In a recent interview, however, Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld revealed that he’s still holding out hope for a big screen crossover between the two no matter how unlikely it seems at this stage, although he admits that he doesn’t see it happening at any point in the near future.
“I don’t like to speculate on things that can’t possibly be, but I’m stubborn enough to believe that as the years go by, as we get more distance, that maybe in ten years, that we’ll see them together. Even though I have been told, by Hugh and by Ryan that he’s moving on, to my face, minds change. Time passes, things change. I am still holding out on the fact that there is still that opportunity, and they will share the screen at some point now that Ryan has found the Deadpool we all intended him to be.”
No offense to Rob Liefeld, but that sounds an awful lot like wishful thinking. The Deadpool franchise may be plowing ahead under the Marvel Studios banner and under new management, but Wolverine is almost certainly going to feature prominently in the MCU’s eventual X-Men reboot, which isn’t expected to arrive for a long while yet. In ten years’ time, Ryan Reynolds will be 53 years old and Jackman will 61, and nobody wants to see two past-their-prime superheroes suiting up to indulge in an exercise in fan wish-fulfillment.