Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool is finally about to reunite with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine. The movie marks Deadpool’s first appearance in the MCU after Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, and will form part of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga. This will effectively see the Merc With a Mouth leaping into different realities. Along with bringing back characters from Fox’s X-Men franchise, Deadpool & Wolverine will see Loki’s Time Variance Authority make the leap from streaming series to the big screen, as they reach out to Wade Wilson to make him a universe-hopping offer he can’t refuse.
Outside of Deadpool’s move into the MCU, Hugh Jackman’s return as Wolverine has been the biggest talking point in the Marvel fandom. Previously, Jackman had remained adamant that 2017’s Logan would be his final appearance as the character he first played in 2000’s X-Men. Despite this, fans — and Ryan Reynolds — have been eager to see Logan and Deadpool team up properly ever since the latter got his own solo movie. Now, the magic of Marvel’s Multiverse Saga has finally allowed it to happen. However, Wolverine’s cinematic history is a little bit complicated, and it has not yet been confirmed whether Deadpool & Wolverine will feature a new variant of the character or a previous version. Still, there are some hints.
Does Deadpool 3 Bring Back Logan’s Wolverine?
The first full trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine gives fans their first look at Jackman back in action as his iconic X-Man. The trailer also offers a little insight into where the movie finds Wolverine, possibly confirming where this version of the character fits into the previous Fox movies. X-Men: Days of Future Past resulted in some major changes to the history of Fox’s X-Men Universe, meaning the present-day Wolverine who existed by the end of that movie had lived a very different life to the Wolverine seen in the X-Men movies up until that point. When Logan arrived in theaters, some fans were therefore surprised when the movie contained references to the original X-Men. This might suggest that Logan took place in the original, unaltered timeline.
While Logan has largely been treated as a standalone entry in the X-Men franchise, it now looks like Deadpool & Wolverine could feature Logan’s version of Wolverine. Logan saw mutants dying out, with most of the X-Men already killed in the Westchester Incident. Over the course of Logan, it was revealed that the Westchester Incident was a tragic accident, in which the aging Professor X lost control of his telepathic abilities, killing all of the X-Men except for himself and Wolverine. The incident cost many others their lives as well, resulting in Xavier’s brain being classed as a weapon of mass destruction by the US Government and forcing Logan to take Xavier into hiding.
Logan’s dark, post-apocalyptic story is a far cry from the irreverent comedy and outlandish comic book action of a movie like Deadpool & Wolverine. However, the trailer does tease a connection between the two movies. The Wolverine that Deadpool is sent to find by the TVA has allegedly “let down his entire world,” with the trailer teasing his downward spiral from an event that seemingly wrought chaos on his Earth. No details are given of exactly what has happened to this Wolverine’s world, but this backstory all sounds very familiar.
Logan finds a much older iteration of Logan still reeling from the loss of the X-Men and the deaths of so many mutants on his Earth. Deadpool & Wolverine finds a younger version of Logan in a similar state, suggesting that this could in fact be the same version of the character, years earlier in the timeline. If so, Deadpool & Wolverine could also clear up confusion around whether Logan takes place in the original or the revised X-Men timeline, as the TVA seem eager to prune this Wolverine’s particular timeline. If Logan does take place in the revised timeline, the TVA may blame the Westchester Incident on Logan changing history in Days of Future Past.
Is Deadpool & Wolverine’s Logan a New Variant?
While a few clues in the new Deadpool & Wolverine trailer point to the movie’s Wolverine being the same one who appeared in Logan and other X-Men movies, there is also reason to believe this could be an entirely new Wolverine. The TVA’s involvement in Deadpool & Wolverine means any number of different realities and timelines could be explored in the movie. It’s possible that more than one Wolverine will feature in the movie, though it appears there is one in particular who teams up with Deadpool. While Marvel might want to bring the Wolverine fans already know and love back to the screen, the Multiverse Saga might also be the perfect place to introduce an alternative version.
For the first time in his cinematic lifetime, Wolverine is donning his classic yellow costume in Deadpool & Wolverine. Fans have been clamoring to see Hugh Jackman don a comic-accurate look like this since 2000, but the fact that he hasn’t until now might suggest this is a different universe’s Wolverine. It seems unlikely a down-and-out Logan, who has had to endure the loss of the X-Men, would go to the trouble of getting himself a super-suit once he’s already on his own. It’s more likely this is a version of Wolverine who’s a little closer to his comic book counterpart and who wore the yellow threads during his X-Men days.
Of course, very little was seen of the X-Men’s revised timeline in the present day at the end of Days of Future Past. It’s possible that Wolverine started wearing his traditional costume in this reality after changing history. However, this is presumably the same timeline in which the Deadpool movies take place and it seems likely that the TVA would only approach Deadpool if the mission they had for him involved events or individuals from another reality, as the multiverse is their remit. Introducing a new variant of Wolverine might be how Deadpool & Wolverine brings Deadpool into contact with the TVA and the multiverse, paving the way for his move to the MCU.
Previous MCU releases in the Multiverse Saga, such as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, have introduced the concept of incursions — collisions that occur when barriers between realities are eroded, resulting in one or more universes being destroyed. In the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer, Paradox of the TVA does not claim Wolverine merely cost his fellow X-Men their lives; he claims Wolverine failed his “entire world.” This might mean this Wolverine is the survivor of a world that was destroyed in an incursion he failed to stop. If he has survived by fleeing into either Deadpool’s universe or the MCU, this would explain why the TVA want to track him down.
A Bleak Fate for Logan in Deadpool & Wolverine
Whatever is behind Wolverine’s return to the big screen in Deadpool & Wolverine, the future is not looking bright for the fan-favorite mutant. If Jackman is returning as Logan’s version of Wolverine, then the ending to his story is already written. Whatever happens in his upcoming adventure with Deadpool, this Wolverine would be doomed to return to his own timeline, where he must face a world without mutants and a life spent in hiding with Charles Xavier, all while suffering the effects of adamantium poisoning. Ultimately, the Wolverine of this timeline would die after seeing Xavier killed, giving his life to save the young X-23 and other child mutants.
If the Wolverine seen in Deadpool & Wolverine is a new variant of the character, however, things are still looking bleak for him. While Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool has been slated to join the MCU ever since Disney acquired Fox’s movie studios, he is so far the only character from Fox’s X-Men Universe confirmed to be making the transition. Jackman had already aimed to hang up Wolverine’s claws for good when Reynolds brought him out of retirement for one last team-up movie. It’s unlikely Jackman will be returning to the role of Wolverine again after Deadpool & Wolverine, suggesting that if he is playing a new variant of Wolverine, this version of the character won’t be making it into the MCU and may not even make it out of the movie alive.
The future of Wolverine and the other X-Men in the MCU currently remains unclear. Jackman is joining the likes of Patrick Stewart and Kelsey Grammer in reprising their X-Men roles from the Fox Universe for appearances in MCU movies, though whether any of these actors will remain a part of the MCU long-term is yet to be confirmed. Avengers: Secret Wars may well see these old characters returning to the screen if Marvel Studios hopes to top the scale of their last major team-up movie, Avengers: Endgame. However, it is likely that characters like Wolverine will eventually be recast as Marvel brings their own version of the X-Men to life.
Deadpool & Wolverine arrives in theaters July 26.
