Deadpool 3 Was Always Destined to Star Hugh Jackman
The surprise confirmation that Hugh Jackman will reprise the role of Wolverine “one more time” in Deadpool 3 makes good on a recurring joke in the franchise.
Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine always needed to crossover with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool. That’s at least how Reynolds and Deadpool (arguably the same person at this point) saw it. And now, six years after Deadpool (2016) outgrossed any mainline X-Men movie starring Jackman as Logan, Reynolds is finally getting the last laugh.
In case you still haven’t seen the internet-breaking news, scroll on down and marvel at the perfectly on brand tweet from Reynolds’ official account. In the social media video, the Canadian actor sits on a sofa in a house, acting very vague about what he has planned for Deadpool 3, aka the first Merc with a Mouth movie set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Then inspiration strikes as Jackman casually walks behind Reynolds to go up the stairs.
“We did have one idea,” Reynolds says. “Hey Hugh, you want to play Wolverine one more time?”
Jackman, sounding as if he’s chewing on a piece of food, nonchalantly answers, “Yeah, sure Ryan.”
It’s what fans have always wanted to hear, especially now that Deadpool is in the MCU, but it always seemed like a pipe dream after Jackman hung up his claws with such finality in Logan (2017). Not that this has ever deterred Reynolds. Ever since the first scene in 2016’s Deadpool, a film that went into production after they knew Jackman was retiring from the role, Reynolds has made it his personal mission, his higher calling, nay his destiny to bring Jackman back at least “one more time.” Here are all the times Deadpool and Wolverine’s paths have almost crossed.
Teasing Jackman from the Jump in Deadpool 1
Among the very first few lines of dialogue in Deadpool (2016) is a bit in service to gently mocking Hugh Jackman, who would not be appearing in this movie. The gag also sets up that Deadpool/Ryan Reynolds are desperate to share the screen with Logan for real (the abomination appears in X-Men Origins: Wolverine does not count).
“Hello~ Deadpool says when breaking the fourth wall to talk to the camera. “I know right?! Who’s balls did I have to fondle to get my very own movie? I can’t tell you but it does rhyme with Pull-verine. And let me tell you, he’s got a nice pair of smooth criminals down under.” Saying the last bit of that line with a truly awful Australian accent, Reynolds is tweaking Jackman, who at the time was the biggest name and star of the X-Men movie franchise, while also crediting him for helping make an extended X-Men shared universe possible.
Smuggling Jackman’s Likeness into the First Deadpool
Before the 2016 superhero movie was released, Reynolds teased followers online that Jackman would be making an appearance of sorts in the first Wade Wilson superhero movie. And he wasn’t entirely lying.
At the end of the film, after the bad guy has been defeated and Deadpool has saved his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), she finally removes his mask to see what his face has become… and finds a paper cutout of a Hugh Jackman photograph stapled to his forehead.
Hugh Jackman Strikes Back
It’s worth noting that all of the above ribbing was in good humor. And in case folks thought otherwise, Jackman made that clear by firing back at Reynolds with this Instagram post after the Deadpool’s release.
In the video, Jackman lifts a Ryan Reynolds mask to his face to insist that it is he, Ryan Reynolds with an extremely thick Australian accent, here to celebrate the fact Reynolds really was at last getting his name put down on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “So feel free to urinate on my section of the sidewalk,” Jackman’s “Reynolds” concludes.
Deadpool 2’s Greatest Heartbreak
If you don’t recall, Deadpool 2 (2018) begins with terrible, irrevocable, and inconsolable grief. You see, one year prior to its release, the movie Logan came out. And that movie ended with Jackman’s Wolverine being killed off for seeming good since he was impaled onto a log in his old age. They even buried the body.
Deadpool 2 reminded us of this in graphic detail, too, since the first thing we see in the film is a plastic recreation of Wolverine’s death pose, turned into a music box toy by a visibly depressed Merc with a Mouth.
“Fuck Wolverine,” Deadpool eventually whines. “First, he rides my coattails with the R-rating and then the hairy motherfucker ups the ante by dying. What a dick.”
Deadpool 2 Post-Credits Scene Has “Crossover”
Even after accepting Wolverine is a “dick,” Deadpool 2 just couldn’t quit Jackman. During the film’s post-credit scenes, Wade Wilson uses his newfound ability to time travel to fix past mistakes… including by slaughtering that awful abomination of a “Deadpool” created by X-Men Origins: Wolverine. By using stock footage from when the scene was filmed in 2008, Reynolds inserts his modern Deadpool into the older film to interact with Logan after killing the imposter-Deadpool.
“Hey, it’s me, don’t scratch!” Reynolds snarks. “Just cleaning up the timeline. Look, eventually you’re going to hang up the claws and make a lot of people very sad. But one day, your old pal Wade is going to ask you to get back in the saddle again. And when he does, say yes!”
Deadpool 3 Would’ve Been a Crossover Movie Anyway
This brings us (almost) to the present where it’s been revealed Wolverine will actually star in Deadpool 3. But ever the social media trickster, Reynolds also offered this tantalizing detail on this evening, “In case that’s not enough, before Disney bought Fox, Deadpool 3 was gonna be a road trip between Deadpool and Logan. Rashomon style. For real.”
Is Reynolds being honest? Maybe we’re a sucker for someone typing “for real” on Twitter, but we’re inclined to believe him. And frankly, that sounds like such an amusing premise that we’d love for it to be what the MCU Deadpool 3 ends up as. But that seems unlikely. Road trips and an actual Rashomon-styled storyline where the same event is seen from wildly varying and conflicting perspectives seems a little too small-scale and potentially esoteric for Marvel. Besides, how can Wade have some fun mocking the MCU formula if he makes something too far removed from outside of it?
In fact, given that the MCU has already set up that the multiverse is real with movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness—not to mention the impending threat of more multiverse movies like Secret Wars—it seems possible for Deadpool 3 to riff on just about any superhero concept it wishes. And if that’s not enough, check out the below tweet from one-time Mr. Fantastic actor, John Krasinski. We’re more inclined to believe this is just a joke, but then again… we used to say that about Reynolds’ continued teasing of Jackman.
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David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…