Before Deadpool & Wolverine premiered, and we got to see the story that Ryan Reynolds & Co. developed, I thought we’d see Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) again after Deadpool 3.
Deadpool is joining the MCU for good, sure. But Marvel would probably do anything in its power to have Wolverine meet the MCU’s main Avengers in at least one of the upcoming Avengers adventures. Secret Wars seemed the most likely choice, considering that’s when we’ll see the Avengers assemble. The team will probably include many familiar faces from the multiverse.
Also, I thought that Marvel would introduce the MCU’s main Wolverine at some point after Secret Wars, once we get this reality’s mutants.
Then Deadpool 3 premiered, featuring an amazing joke about the fate of Wolverine in the MCU. A joke that teased Jackman’s future in the MCU would be a lot longer than fans would have hoped for.
More than a month after the premiere, a Marvel insider claims that Deadpool & Wolverine actually gave us the MCU’s main Wolverine. And it’s exactly who you hope it is. Some Deadpool & Wolverine and MCU spoilers might follow below.
At some point during the action in Deadpool & Wolverine, Wade says that Disney will make Jackman play Wolverine until he’s 90. This gag comes up again towards the end of the film. Jackman made fun of it on social media after the film’s premiere.
Jackman also played most Wolverine versions that we saw in the movie. Deadpool traveled the multiverse briefly to find a replacement for the Wolverine version that died in Logan. He came up on all sorts of prospects, including a few exciting owes that turned him down. Among them, there’s one Wolverine I’m dying to see again: Henry Cavill’s variant.
But Jackman’s Wolverine is still my favorite there’s no question about it. If Marvel insider Daniel Richtman is correct, Marvel might keep Jackman’s Wolverine around for several years.
The leaker has heard that Marvel is looking for a team of mutants for the X-Men reboot that will resemble the X-Men 97 team. They’re not looking for a new Wolverine because it appears Jackman will stay on even after Secret Wars.
As a reminder, the Wolverine we got in Deadpool 3 isn’t exactly the hero we’ve been used to. This Logan has started redeeming himself, but he’ll have to do a lot more good to compensate for his failures. Secret Wars might be just the start.
I’ll also remind you that the TVA allowed this Wolverine to stay in Deadpool’s universe. That’s sort of a plot hole. That universe should already have its original Wolverine, who dies in Logan several years later. Maybe that’s how this Wolverine gets to stay in the MCU’s main universe.
I’ve been following MCU rumors for so long that I remember leaks suggesting Marvel might close the multiverse after Secret Wars. After what has happened so far in Phases 4 and 5, that seems like the right thing to do.
The multiverse is great. It allows adventures like Avengers: Endgame, Loki, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Deadpool & Wolverine, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars to happen.
The multiverse gives you access to all sorts of superheroes, including dead variants of the original ones. But it also removes the real stakes. So what if our favorite hero died? We’ll just replace them with a variant.
Separately, I’ll point out that Earth-616 doesn’t have the mutants we saw in the Fox Marvel universe, and Marvel has to figure out how to bring them to the MCU.
Marvel could combine multiple realities into a single timeline after Secret Wars. That’s how the MCU would get mutants out of the blue and how Wolverine gets to stay for more X-Men adventures in the MCU, fulfilling the “till you’re 90” prophecy from Deadpool 3.
All of this is speculation, as Marvel is far from announcing the MCU’s X-Men actors. However, I do want to see more of Jackman’s Logan in the MCU, and I hope Richtman’s information is accurate.
