After Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine was laid to rest in the final moments of James Mangold’s Academy Award-nominated Logan, the cross above his grave tilted ever so slightly to resemble an X, and it was with a heavy heart that the world bid farewell to one of the best – if not the best – actors to ever play the clawed mutant.
Starting with Bryan Singer’s X-Men in 2000, Jackman helped introduce the world to a whole new era of superhero films, spanning a total of nine movies across 17 years. Over time, it was Jackman who became the through-line upon which the X-Men movies fleshed out its storyline. His departure signaled the beginning of a new era and the ending of another.
It’s understandable, then, why the news of Jackman’s reprisal of the character took the world by storm when Ryan Reynolds dropped the bomb in Sept. 2022. Not only had Jackman’s Wolverine died in Logan, but the X-Men were playing in an entirely different ball game now, no longer beholden to the tight grip of 20th Century Fox after Disney acquired the company in March of 2019.
“Hey, Hugh, you want to play Wolverine one more time?” Ryan Reynolds asked in his announcement video as Jackman passed behind him nonchalantly chomping down on an apple.
“Yeah, sure Ryan,” replied Jackman, ascending a flight of stairs and out of sight. And with that, the Marvel Cinematic Universe ushered in a brand-new era.
How might Wolverine show up in Deadpool 3?
Since the announcement of Deadpool 3, Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds have offered piecemeal information about the film, starting with the most important detail of all: Deadpool 3 will not erase Wolverine’s fate in Logan. Instead, the threequel will take place prior to Wolverine’s curtain call, as confirmed by Jackman and Reynolds.
With the MCU knee-deep in its multiversal playground, there are endless possibilities for how Jackman (and Reynolds) might enter the fold. As we’ve seen from Spider-Man: No Way Home, the chance of variants spilling into the current MCU timeline is always possible. Jackman himself has alluded to it. In a recent interview, he referenced a “device,” either literally or figuratively, that will allow Marvel to “screw with the Logan timeline.”
“All because of this device they have in the Marvel world of moving around timelines, now, we can go back because it’s science. And so I don’t have to screw with the Logan timeline, which was important to me, and I think probably to the fans, too.”
What needs to go horribly wrong for Wolverine and Deadpool to “spill” over into the MCU’s current timeline – if that is the route the MCU goes down – remains to be seen, however, such an act will have game-changing implications for the franchise on both the front and back end since Wolverine all but signals the official entrance of mutants into the MCU. (No, we haven’t forgotten about Ms. Marvel.)
With America Chavez, Wanda, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, and several other MCU characters capable of traveling through the multiverse, it’s also possible that any one of them (or none of them) could stumble upon Wade and Wolverine accidentally (and hilariously) and serve as the launching pad upon which Deadpool 3 takes its first steps. Smells like an end-credits scene, if you ask us.
One thing we do know is that Deadpool’s habit of breaking the fourth wall means he’s likely to break a couple of rules in the process, even if those rules have multiversal consequences. In the meantime, there are five movies separating Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Deadpool 3, both of which serve as the launch pad of Phases Five and Six respectively. Since Quantumania is largely considered a turning point for the Multiverse Saga, we can reasonably assume Deadpool 3 will also turn things on its head.
Deadpool 3 premieres in theatres on Nov. 8, 2024.