The clock is ticking. We’re less than three months away from the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere. You’d better get ready for a flurry of interviews, Deadpool 3 clips, and all sorts of crazy marketing stunts as Marvel pulls out all the stops to promote the only new MCU movie of 2024.
Plus, this is Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), not your average Marvel hero. He’s partnering up with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who is also not your average superhero. That’s all possible because of the multiverse angle. It’s how Wade Wilson and Logan can interact and cross over into the MCU.
As we all know, Wolverine died in Logan, so you need the multiverse to snatch him from sometime earlier in the timeline. Hugh Jackman already confirmed that the multiverse allowed Marvel to bring back Wolverine without ruining the legacy of Logan. Those comments hinted at how Marvel might also revive Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) for Avengers: Secret Wars.
However, it turns out that Jackman wasn’t exactly correct, and Marvel’s Kevin Feige confirmed how Wolverine is coming back. This is a big Deadpool & Wolverine plot spoiler, not just for the movie but for what remains of the Multiverse Saga. Therefore, I’ll warn you that big Deadpool 3 spoilers follow below.
We know from the Deadpool & Wolverine trailers that the TVA recruits Wade Wilson for a special mission. That basically confirms speculation about the TVA involvement, as well as plot leaks that said as much. That’s probably how we get Wolverine into the mix. Deadpool will reportedly need the best version of Wolverine for this mission.
Until now, I thought this Wolverine was one of the versions we saw in the Fox universe of Marvel movies. Specifically, I thought he would be the Wolverine version that dies in Logan. The TVA can pick up Wolverine from any moment in time, have him work with Deadpool to finish a critical mission, and then put him back in his own timeline.
This is also how Marvel could bring back Rober Downey Jr. in Secret Wars. Just get Iron Man before he dies, and then return him to his regular timeline. But there’s a big problem in all of this. What if Iron Man dies in Secret Wars? Or if Logan gets killed before returning to his own reality?
What I’m getting at is that Marvel has other options. And it turns out it chose a different Wolverine for Deadpool 3.
Kevin Feige talked to Empire about bringing Wolverine to the MCU. The top Marvel exec apparently advised the actor not to return: “I said, ‘Let me give you a piece of advice, Hugh. Don’t come back,’” Feige explained. “‘You had the greatest ending in history with Logan. That’s not something we should undo.’”
Pressed on whether the Wolverine in Deadpool 3 is the same Logan from the Fox X-Men movies, Feige said this is a different variant. And that’s the big Deadpool 3 plot detail that changes everything we thought we knew.
It’s not surprising if you really think about it. After all, Marvel did the same thing with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in his Disney+ TV show. The MCU’s main Loki died in Infinity War, but Marvel gave us a variant who is very close to the original. I loved Loki even more in the TV show, so the trick definitely worked.
Marvel could just replicate the trick with Wolverine. We could get a similar version of Wolverine to the one we saw in the Fox movies. But he’s from a different reality, where he didn’t finish his journey. Rinse and repeat, and we could get the same treatment with RDJ, assuming Marvel doesn’t go for a different angle.
Yes, the multiverse will somewhat ruin the MCU. You need the stakes to be real, and for deaths to be permanent. But we also need these actors and their characters to be able to interact with each other, at least once.
What’s also interesting here is that Marvel can keep using this Wolverine beyond Deadpool 3. It doesn’t have to put the hero back on the Logan path. Therefore, this Wolverine might stick around.
What seems clear from the same interview is that Jackman is very excited about returning to his iconic Wolverine role, at least for this particular movie.
“We almost did it in The Wolverine,” Jackman said of wearing the original Wolverine suit. “But from the moment I put it on here, I was like, ‘How did we never do this?’ It looked so right, it felt so right. I was like, ‘That’s him.’ There are different sides of Wolverine we haven’t seen before in the movies. It was exciting for me.”
As for how Jackman decided to return to the role, he said he just took a long drive. “I was about an hour into the drive,” the actor told the magazine. “And that question came into my head: ‘What do I want to do?’ And as soon as I asked the question, I wanted to do Deadpool & Wolverine. I just knew it. I drove for another hour. Couldn’t stop thinking about it. And I got out of the car, called Ryan, and said, ‘Ryan, if you’ll have me, I’m in.’”
Empire will have lots more Deadpool 3 coverage when it hits the stands. And, remember, the Deadpool & Wolverine press tour is only getting started.