Ryan Reynolds shocked the internet with the announcement that Hugh Jackman would return as Wolverine in Deadpool 3. Jackman played the role of Wolverine in 2000’s X-Men and reprised his role multiple times over the course of 17 years in numerous movies with Wolverine, which concluded with the release of Logan in 2017. Logan marked an epic emotional conclusion to the actor’s time as the character, concluding with the character dying but his legacy living on through his daughter Laura. It has been five years since the film’s release and Jackman appeared to be done with the character, having moved on to other projects like The Greatest Showman, Bad Education, and The Son.

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Meanwhile, it appeared with the purchases of 20th Century Fox by Disney and the ending of the X-Men film series it appeared the X-Men would be recast within the MCU with the sole expectation of Deadpool who Kevin Feige confirmed would appear in the MCU and his film would be rated R. While Deadpool joining the MCU is a big deal, for the character’s third feature film it needed a big hook and Reynold’s fun online “rivalry” with Jackman has finally paid off. Deadpool 3’s director Shawn Levy has worked with Reynolds on both Free Guy and The Adam Project and Jackman on Real Steel so it certainly feels like a reunion among friends. Yet there might be a more significant for why Jackman finally decided to put the claws back on after having sworn off the idea for so long. This is why Hugh Jackman is returning as Wolverine.

Just in Time For Wolverine’s 50th Anniversary

     Marvel Comics

Deadpool 3 is set for release on September 6, 2024, and while it is a notably big movie to release on Labor Day weekend, the year holds significant weight. 2024 will mark the 50th anniversary of the first appearance of Wolverine in Marvel Comics. Created by Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and John Romita Sr., Wolverine made his first appearance on the final page of The Incredible Hulk #180 in October 1974 before making his first full appearance (and making the cover) of The Incredible Hulk #181.

Marvel clearly wants to do something big for the character’s 50th anniversary as it is a major milestone for the character, and given that Jackman is the face most audiences associate with the character it makes a certain amount of sense to have him reprise his role as Wolverine for the anniversary, before eventually casting a new actor to be the official Wolverine of the MCU likely in time for Phase 7 to kick off a new era of the MCU focused on the X-Men.

Deadpool 3 Marks Jackman’s Return as Wolverine After 7 Years Away

     20th Century Fox

By the time Deadpool 3 hits theaters, it will have been 7 years since Jackman last played the character of Wolverine in Logan. Logan was billed as Jackman’s final time playing the character, and much of the media attention surrounding the film was regarding it being the end of his legendary 17-year run playing the character. 20th Century Fox, director James Mangold, and Hugh Jackman wanted to give this version of Wolverine a high note to go out of and the film’s critical response and box office return certainly indicated it worked.

This is one reason why many assumed, despite all the jokes Reynolds would make about Jackman’s Wolverine joining the franchise it appeared it would never happen. Jackman had made it clear he was done with the character and didn’t want to return to the character and take away the great ending for Logan. Following Spider-Man: No Way Home’s ability to bring back characters like Doc Ock and maintaining the original actor while not undercutting the original work in Spider-Man 2 likely was a comfort to Jackman that whatever version of Wolverine this is, it will not override or take away from Logan’s impactful ending.

Deadpool 3 Will Be 24 Years From the Release of X-Men

It’s hard to believe but when Jackman reprises his role as Wolverine in Deadpool 3, it will have been 24 years since the release of the first X-Men. This is an incredible feat, similar to the original cast of Star Trek still playing their iconic characters for 25 years after the series first premiered. The X-Men movies were one of the earliest superhero movies of the modern era, and many defined the characters with Jackman’s Wolverine leaving a large shadow over the characters. There have been many actors to play Superman and Batman, but there has only ever been one Wolverine, and even after all this time Jackman is still linked to the character.

With Phases 4 through 6 being dubbed the Multiverse Saga, Marvel Studios is embracing their pre-MCU legacy by bringing in past incarnations of characters from previous movie incarnations like both characters from the original Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy and the two Amazing Spider-Man movies into Spider-Man: No Way Home. Bringing in Jackman as Wolverine further connects Marvel’s past to its future, likely setting the stage for Avengers: Secret Wars which draws from the massive multiversal comic which saw various realities in the Marvel Comics universe smashed together. A similar angle might happen in the film, with various cinematic Marvel characters smashed into one reality for a film that is a giant love letter to Marvel’s cinematic history.

This Was the Original Deadpool 3 Plan

Deadpool was the hit nobody at 20th Century Fox saw coming, otherwise, they would not have taken so long to greenlight it. Deadpool and Deadpool 2 are currently the top two highest-grossing films in the X-Men film franchise unadjusted for inflation, outranking any of the live-action ensemble films. The studio had a lot invested in the franchise and likely would have moved quickly on a Deadpool 3 had the studio not been purchased by Disney. Since then, the original plans for Deadpool 3 appear to have been scraped as the new film will feature the character joining the MCU.

However, Reynolds did reveal in 2021 that the original plan for Deadpool 3 was supposed to be a road trip movie with Wolverine. It is unclear if this was a joke on Reynolds’s part or serious plot development, but now that could be the case for the planned MCU film. Deadpool 3 could see Wade Wilson traveling the multiverse, and teaming up with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, either the original Fox version of the character or a variant from another universe similar to Patrick Stewart’s Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Regardless, we can’t wait.