Marvel fans got the unexpected treat of a lifetime with sudden and unceremonious reveal that Hugh Jackman will be returning as Wolverine in Deadpool 3. Fans have wanted Jackman to suit up again as Wolverine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as see the actor team up with his real-life buddy Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool. Now it looks like we will be getting both of those wishes fulfilled โ but is that all we are getting?ย
Since Marvel Studios first announced that Avengers: Secret Wars was coming in 2025, there has been endless speculation about how many big cameos Marvel Studios could pack into the film. The entire premise of the Secret Wars event is that various realities from across the Marvel Multiverse all come crashing together for a big battle for survival in an arena created from bits and pieces of those various fragmented universes. Therefore, it was only natural to assume that a movie version of Secret Wars could borrow actors and characters that appeared in films and/or TV shows outside the MCU, with X-Men Movies Universe being the biggest bet for a Secret Wars showcase.ย
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After all, Marvel Studios still has a massive hurdle to get over, when it comes to introducing the X-Men to the MCU. The franchise has slowly but surely introduced the idea of mutants (or at least mutation) existing among humans, allowing people like Kamala Khan, Bruce Banner, and Jen Walters to all manifest powers that others could not under similar circumstances. It’s a start, but it doesn’t do anything to explain how a full-fledged team of mutants like the X-Men would exist in the MCU โ let alone an entire community of mutants across the world.ย
Secret Wars has long been looked at as the best bet for Marvel to integrate the X-Men into the MCU from a fresh start launchpad. The resolution of the comic book Secret Wars events always sees a sort of universal reset, in which Marvel literally gets to pick and choose which elements of different realities to keep in the main universe. It’s how Miles Morales finally got to play in the main Marvel Comics Universe with all the classic heroes (instead of their “Ultimates” variants), and it has seemed like a perfectly suitable method for Marvel Studios to either pick former Marvel movie stars for roles in the MCU โ or recast popular characters in whatever new reality results from Secret Wars.ย
Hugh Jackman continuing a Wolverine arc from Deadpool 3 into Avengers: Secret Wars would be great โ just as it would fun to Jackman, Patrick Stewart’s Professor X and other Fox X-Men movie actors all return as some kind of different Secret Wars variants of the X-Men to theones we got in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Deadpool 3. Either way: If Secret Wars doesn’t have Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, it’ll now be a serious disappointment.ย
Deadpool 3 hits theaters on September 6, 2024. Avengers: Secret Wars will be in theaters in November of 2025.ย