Even though Hugh Jackman’s iconic tenure as Wolverine will never be bettered – not to mention that he went out in a suitably epic blaze of glory in the acclaimed and Academy Award-nominated Logan – fans were completely on board with the mutton-chopped mutant making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in next year’s Deadpool 3.
The reasons why are fairly simple; both Jackman and Reynolds made a point right off the bat of underlining in no uncertain terms that the incoming threequel won’t impact the events of Logan, which is technically still canon after James Mangold’s Western-inspired comic book classic took place in 2029.
Then there’s the mouthwatering prospect of seeing Hollywood’s favorite frenemies sharing the screen as their respective superhero icons, not to mention Jackman’s X-Men legend finally getting to show up in the biggest franchise of all-time. It was inevitable that Wolverine would be back in one way or another, and while he’s not particularly enthused by it, Logan director James Mangold admitted to Variety that he knew it would happen eventually.
“I can’t say that there’s a part of me that doesn’t wish that we’d let it be. But there was always going to be another Wolverine. There could be a baby Wolverine and a cartoon Wolverine. As much liquid as they can squeeze out of that rag, they’re going to try to. I don’t measure my success on a movie like Logan with whether we ended the conversation. I ended my conversation.”
Even after Deadpool 3, there’s the distinctly high probability that Wolverine is going to end up being rebooted and recast with another actor whenever the MCU’s X-Men finally gathers some serious momentum in development, so there’s no point getting upset over one film’s existence when there are almost always going to be more to come in the world of world-renowned IP.