How can Hugh Jackman return as Wolverine in Deadpool 3 if his character had died (heroically) in 2017's Logan? Although teaming up with Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson aka Deadpool is something that has been teased in the films and hoped for by fans for years, it looks are though some creative storytelling will need to be employed to bring the two heroes together. As such, a logical way Hugh Jackman's Wolverine can return would come by utilizing an earlier timeline from Fox's franchise of X-Men movies.
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In 2014, X-Men: Days of Future Past reworked the entire franchise timeline so that Mystique never assassinated Bolivar Trask in 1973. This meant that his Sentinel program was not taken and developed by the government using Mystique's DNA, eventually bringing about a dark dystopia where mutants were all but wiped out in the future. This revised timeline would then continue with Logan, which was meant to be Hugh Jackman's final film set in the year 2029, where Wolverine sacrifices himself to save his clone daughter.
In keeping with the MCU's rules about branch realities which are created via time travel, Deadpool could team up with a Wolverine from the original X-Men timeline still in existence rather than the revised one which culminates in Wolverine's death at the end of Logan. While the revised timeline's Wolverine could be taken from an earlier point in his timeline before the events of Logan, it would run the risk of diminishing the ending given to that version of Jackman's character, one he was able to see through to a very complete and satisfying conclusion. The original timeline's Logan seems like the better choice, though in truth either version of the character will still be Hugh Jackman's iconic take on the popular mutant hero. It's also possible that Jackman's Wolverine will be an entirely new version plucked from within the multiverse, but that may run the risk of being disappointing to a certain extent – even though seeing Jackman on-screen again will be exciting nonetheless.
Will Hugh Jackman Be The MCU's Wolverine?
It does seem rather unlikely that Hugh Jackman will be making an extended return as Wolverine in the MCU beyond Deadpool 3. After all, Ryan Reynolds did ask Hugh Jackman in the Deadpool 3 announcement video if he wanted to play Wolverine "one more time." Likewise, Hugh Jackman has now been attached to the role for over 20 years, and Marvel is probably looking to recast the role of Wolverine in the MCU alongside a whole new cast of mutants that will be coming in the near future. That being said, a Deadpool/Wolverine team-up film is hard to pass up given how close Jackman and Reynolds are in real life combined with the hilarious relationship the two heroes have in the comics.
All in all, it's going to be very exciting to see Hugh Jackman's return as Wolverine for what will likely be one final hurrah. Teaming up with Deadpool is one of the last things on the bucket list his character never got to do after X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Despite the character's death in Logan, the multiverse provides an infinite number of possibilities for Wolverine's return in Deadpool 3, though the Logan from the original timeline does seem to make the most sense before a new Wolverine likely debuts in the MCU's future.