After months of financial wrangling, and outbidding rivals Comcast, it looks like Disney’s now just a short time away from purchasing 20th Century Fox. As fans know, the implications of this are massive for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it will mean that the rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four will finally be coming home.
Though we all want to see characters like Doctor Doom, Magneto and others in the MCU, arguably the one that comic book readers most want to cross paths with the Avengers is Wolverine. He’s not only the most popular X-Man by far, but Logan also has a history of serving with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on the page. So, it makes perfect sense for him to be the focal point of the crossover.
But, say we’ve fast forwarded to the point where all the complicated legal agreements have been made and Marvel Studios are free to drop Wolverine into the MCU – how would they do it? Well, YouTuber Everything Always has come up with a pretty compelling theory based on the character’s origins in the source material, which you can check out below.
The video points out that the Adamantium hero made his first comics appearance not in an X-Men publication but The Incredible Hulk #181. Given that, it would make perfect sense for Wolverine to make his big debut in the MCU in a battle with Bruce Banner’s alter-ego. Everything Always suggests this could happen in an Avengers movie before some other installment introduces the new versions of the rest of the X-Men, which would make sense.
This is interesting idea, and a convincing one, too, as the MCU has previously introduced characters for the first time by having them fight fellow heroes. Notably, Spider-Man and Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War. It would also be a great way of immediately promoting the idea that Wolverine’s now part of the MCU and can interact with all of these other individuals.
Like the YouTuber points out, though, fans shouldn’t expect to see Logan facing off against the Jade Giant in Avengers 4. Kevin Feige has said outright that it would be legally impossible for them to do any crossovers just yet. In fact, he’s stated that it’s unlikely the X-Men will even appear at all in Phase 4 – which we imagine will last from about 2019-2024. Whenever it does happen, though, let’s hope it involves Wolverine vs. the Hulk.