Deadpool 3: Which Wolverine Suit Is Hugh Jackman Wearing?

Hugh Jackman is finally putting on the yellow spandex (more or less) in Marvel Studios’ Deadpool 3, with Ryan Reynolds revealing his co-star donning a comics-accurate Wolverine costume for the first time in his record-setting tenure as Logan in the X-Men movies, and Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are loving it. However, Wolverine has had many suits throughout his nearly 50-year existence in the Marvel Universe. Which one is Jackman wearing in Deadpool 3? Not the one most people seem to think. Jackman’s Deadpool 3 Wolverine costume does sport the iconic blue-and-yellow color scheme that most fans associate with Wolverine. That’s led them to assume that Jackman’s look is a modified version of Wolverine’s best-known costume, the one featured in X-Men: The Animated Series.

However, that’s not the case. Jackman’s costume appears most similar to the suit Wolverine began wearing in the Marvel Comics universe in the Astonishing X-Men comic book series in 2004, designed by artist John Cassaday.

The History of Wolverine’s Blue and Yellow Costume

The confusion is understandable if you know the history of Wolverine’s blue and yellow threads. The iconic Wolverine costume first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 in 1975. It is essentially the same costume that Wolverine’s co-creator John Romita Sr. designed for his first appearance a year earlier in The Incredible Hulk #181, but either Gil Kane or Dave Cockrum (both worked on Giant-Size X-Men) modified the mask to lose the whisker lines from that first appearance and add black wings extending from the eyes (this change to Wolverine’s mask got an in-universe explanation in Marvel’s recent X-Men Legends series).

Wolverine would keep the blue and yellow costume until Uncanny X-Men #139 in 1980. That’s when artist John Byrne, who loved Wolverine but hated the blue-and-yellow costume he considered gaudy, introduced Wolverine’s brown-and-tan suit, which Logan would wear throughout the 1980s.

In the 1990s, Byrne returned to the X-Men and worked with Jim Lee, the hot young artist who helped elevate the X-Men to record-setting sales. Lee brought back Wolverine’s blue-and-yellow costume and then told Byrne that he’d restored Wolverine’s “real” costume, seemingly unaware that Byrne had changed Wolverine’s appearance in the first place.

The timing of the blue-and-yellow Wolverine costume’s return was significant. X-Men: The Animated Series was in the works and would use Jim Lee’s costume designs (he’d given the entire team new looks for the launch of X-Men #1 in 1991). The popularity of X-Men: The Animated Series is primarily responsible for the blue-and-yellow costume being Wolverine’s best-known among casual X-Men fans.

Wolverine’s Astonishing X-Men Costume

But the blue-and-yellow costume went away again in the early 2000s when Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely decided to ditch superhero fashion for black leather outfits in their New X-Men run. Once that era ended, superheroes came back into style, and Cassaday was called upon to design new costumes for the flagship Astonishing X-Men series.

In the wake of Bryan Hitch’s genre-redefining work on The Authority and The Ultimates, superheroes generally began to have more realistic costumes in the early 21st century. In keeping with that trend, Cassaday brought back Wolverine’s blue-and-yellow colors but toned down some of the exaggerated aspects of his classic look, going for smaller black tips on the mask, removing the blue trunks, and giving the suit less prominent should pieces. Cassaday also added details like stitching to make the costumes feel more realistic. Another difference is in the detailing on the side, where Cassaday replaced the black claw marks with a blue streak framing yellow slashes.

This would be Wolverine’s look for a few years, appearing on merchandise and across the Marvel Comics line until 2008, when the X-Men got updated designs for Uncanny X-Men #500. Even then, those new designs built on Cassaday’s but added more complicated piping and a large “X” badge to the suits.

In practice, Cassaday took the classic Wolverine costume and gave it a more cinematic look fitting his art style. Is it any wonder that the Deadpool 3 team looked to this look when figuring out how to bring Wolvie’s iconic appearance to live-action?

When is Deadpool 3‘s release date?

Deadpool 3 opens in theaters on May 3, 2024. Ryan Reynolds stars as Wade Wilson in the film, directed by Shawn Levy, whom Reynolds worked with on Free Guy. The film is in production now.

Jennifer Garner is also reprising her role as Elektra for the movie, making it something of a celebration of the 20th Century Fox Marvel movies. Ben Affleck is also rumored to appear, though that has not been confirmed.