Did We Screw Up By Getting Hugh Jackman to Return in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’?

Deadpool & Wolverine is one of the most anticipated films of the year, with many hoping it will lead to an era of renewed big screen success for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and movies as a whole. But while most Marvel fans eagerly await the film and especially Hugh Jackman’s performance in it — which will mark the first time he’s reprised his iconic role as mutant superhero Logan/Wolverine in seven years — many are simultaneously concerned his return could lessen the impact of what was initially supposed to be his final film in the role, 2017’s Logan. That brutally beautiful spin-off of the X-Men franchise remains one of the most acclaimed superhero films ever made and was the first in the genre to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Logan is particularly famous for being a rare example of a superhero adaptation in which a main character is given a definitive ending, as Logan himself sacrifices his life in the film’s finale. Comic book fans and cinephiles alike are worried that Jackman’s return in Deadpool & Wolverine could make this moving death meaningless. Kevin Feige, ironically, might be the most nervous about Jackman’s return, as he even recalled in an interview telling the actor, “‘Let me give you a piece of advice, Hugh. Don’t come back,'” adding, “‘You had the greatest ending in history with Logan. That’s not something we should undo.’” Feige’s obviously changed his tune, but were his instincts right?

The Multiverse Allows Marvel To Use a Wolverine Separate From ‘Logan’

First and foremost, there have been repeated reassurances from Jackman and his co-workers that steps are being taken to ensure that his past films are not discounted. After Jackman’s return was announced in 2022, he and his main co-star, Ryan Reynolds, who plays self-aware anti-hero Wade Wilson/Deadpool and served as a co-writer on the film, posted a video to social media in which Reynolds directly stated “Logan takes place in 2029. Totally different thing. Logan died in Logan. Not touching that.” Jackman also made a separate statement alluding to Marvel’s use of alternate realities as a key plot point in the ongoing Multiverse Saga as the justification for his reprisal. “It’s all because of this device they have in the Marvel world of moving around timelines,” he said, before elaborating that, “I don’t have to screw with the Logan timeline which was important to me. And I think probably to the fans too.”

More recently, a piece on the film for Variety revealed that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige himself initially advised Jackman against reprising the role because he believed he “’had the greatest ending in history with ‘Logan’”, and “’That’s not something we should undo.’” The fact that both he and Jackman eventually committed to making the film despite their reservations suggests that it truly does feature a version of the character that is explicitly distinct from the one featured in Logan and that Deadpool & Wolverine is of high enough potential quality that they believed it was worth making.

The X-Men Movie Timelines Are Always Changing

There is, of course, a decent chance that at least a portion of the audience will not find this multiversal explanation convincing enough to justify Jackman’s comeback. But it may be easier to buy than one initially thinks, as the actor has already played different versions of the character. The continuity of the X-Men franchise famously (or infamously) lacks cohesion, with Jackman appearing in films whose events explicitly contradict one another in a variety of ways. And, even more pertinently, Logan is intentionally vague about its place in the franchise and has been interpreted by many as taking place in a largely isolated timeline. The 2020 film The New Mutants retroactively established itself as taking place in the same continuity and Logan itself does reference the X-Men having an experience at the Statue of Liberty, alluding to the finale of the original X-Men film. But aside from those connections, it is unclear what, if any, events from prior films are canonical to Logan’s backstory and details of the film’s world-building explicitly separate it from a few other entries in the franchise.

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Logan’s version of 2029 is a dystopia in which no mutants have been born in 25 years, with the exceptions of Logan’s cloned daughter Laura (Dafne Keen) and other children like her who were artificially grown with genetic material from older mutants by biotechnology company Alkali-Transigen in an attempt to create super-soldiers. In sharp contrast, the end of the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past, which explicitly ties together the original X-Men trilogy, prequel X-Men: First Class, and earlier spin-off The Wolverine (despite some continuity issues of its own) shows a utopian version of 2023 in which the mutant community is implied to be generally safe. If the Logan in Deadpool & Wolverine, which seems partially intended to be a celebration of the X-Men franchise, is a version of the character who has appeared previously, it would make more sense for it to be the one shown in Days of Future Past, as that Logan is confirmed to have lived through the events of most of the films but did not receive such a definitive conclusion to his story.

Wade Wilson References ‘Logan’ in ‘Deadpool 2’

Although the Logan in Deadpool & Wolverine is unlikely to be the same variant featured in Logan, Feige recently confirmed in the previously linked Empire Magazine article that the new film will reference the older one. This isn’t that surprising, given that the self-aware Deadpool series has already mentioned Logan. In 2018’s Deadpool 2, many of Wade’s fourth wall-breaking jokes are directed at Logan, both the character and the film. Wade openly expresses his hopes for his film to match or exceed the level of critical acclaim Logan received and the musical score from Logan’s death scene is reused in a scene in which Wade himself is near death, though he ultimately survives. Feige’s comments suggest that Deadpool & Wolverine’s references will be more serious in nature, describing them as “reverential.” Perhaps hearing of his doppelgänger’s sacrifice will inspire Deadpool & Wolverine’s Logan, who is shown in the trailers to be reluctant to help Wade with his mission, to rededicate himself to heroism? A storyline like this would also connect the new film to Logan in an interesting thematic way.

In Logan, the X-Men are celebrated public figures and Laura and her friends read comic books about their adventures, even drawing inspiration for the plan to find sanctuary in Canada from one of the issues. Logan remarks that the comics’ depictions of the team’s history are largely inaccurate, but they and the film’s references to the 1953 Western Shane, which both Jackman and director James Mangold noted as a stylistic and thematic influence, create a compelling subplot about the importance and inspiring power of storytelling. This aspect of the film also allows viewers to interpret the earlier entries in the X-Men franchise as more fanciful stories that could be told within Logan’s relatively grounded world. Deadpool & Wolverine may very well add to this thematic exploration and could be interpreted the same way, especially given that it, like the comics in Logan, features the character wearing versions of his famous yellow and blue costume from real-world Marvel Comics.

‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Needs To Look to ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

Ultimately, even if all of Jackman and company’s assurances turn out to be false, and the new film does alter aspects of Logan’s canon, such as by resurrecting its specific iteration of the title character, Logan the film would not inherently be ruined in the way some are fearing. For proof, one just has to look at the success of another entry in the Multiverse Saga, Spider-Man: No Way Home. That film actually does directly alter the canon of its predecessors, as it transports antagonists from earlier Spider-Man films from standalone worlds, as well as their iterations of Peter Parker (played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield) into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where they interact with Tom Holland’s native Peter.

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In the film’s climax, the three Spider-Men and their allies manage to cure the villains, removing their superpowers, which warped some of their minds, before returning them to their home universes at the same time they were extracted. This would logically lead to alternate timelines in which the earlier films concluded in very different ways, but, as the other Peters are not erased from existence, it seems their original worlds still also exist somewhere in the multiverse. More to the point, viewers continue to appreciate the old films, despite the new one providing alternative endings for some of the characters.

Nothing Can Tarnish Hugh Jackman’s Brilliant Work in ‘Logan’

Simply put, a new film can only really alter one’s feelings about an old one if they let it. Jackman reprising the role doesn’t change anything about the construction or execution of Logan itself, which in truth is what made fans love it in the first place. Anyone who wants to continue to view it as the end of the road for his Wolverine is welcome to, and no one is obligated to see the new film. But those who are interested in Deadpool & Wolverine also shouldn’t feel like they are “ruining” Logan or any other films. All evidence points to the former being a passion project for Jackman and his co-workers that will allow him to explore aspects of his signature character that he didn’t get to in his first 17 years in the role, such as by introducing Logan to the MCU proper.

Logan is available to watch on Disney+ in the U.S.

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