Excitement is building that the MCU is on the verge of recasting Wolverine, and the fandom is abuzz with speculation about who the new Wolverine could be. Yesterday, attentive viewers noticed that Marvel had registered a “Wolverine” trademark with the USPTO – the same way people learned the titles of most films in the Multiverse Saga, including Avengers: Secret Wars. It seems like a strong hint that an MCU recast is on the way after Secret Wars, although some scoopers insist the upcoming movie will still feature Hugh Jackman.
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Many X-Men fans, however, have a different idea. One popular idea is that Dafne Keen’s Laura Kinney, introduced in Logan as X-23, should be the new Wolverine.
Keen was a popular fancast after 2017’s Logan, which was billed as Jackman’s swan song (and didn’t exactly last). The actress made her official MCU debut in this year’s Deadpool and Wolverine, now playing an older version of Logan’s female clone. She hasn’t been confirmed for the cast of Avengers: Doomsday, although many other X-Men-related have been, so she shouldn’t be ruled out.
How the Fans are Reacting to the Idea of Laura as the MCU’s Wolverine
This isn’t exactly a new idea. Laura Kinney became the All-New Wolverine in the comics, back in 2016, in a popular run written by Tom Taylor (he’s recently returned to pen a DC / Marvel team-up between Laura and Batman’s protege, Nightwing). She took up the name in Logan’s honor, and it was frankly a better fit than “X-23” – which can best be compared to her “slave name,” given it’s the codename Laura was given by her creators to dehumanize her. The All-New Wolverine was extremely popular among GenZ, the new viewers the MCU hopes to reach in the Mutant Saga.
Not everybody’s sold, of course; replacing legacy characters is always divisive (see also Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, both of whom have had stints as Captain America in the comics). Some would quite like this idea as something of a stopgap solution, a temporary status quo that leads up to the actual introduction of the MCU’s Wolverine.
The core problem facing the main character is, of course, that Jackman’s Wolverine essentially dominated the entire Fox era of X-Men films. If Marvel is indeed working on a Wolverine movie so early on in the Mutant Saga, it’s potentially a hint that this trend will continue. Only a move like this would really allow for the creation of something fresh and different, and it would be exciting to see it actually happen.
The question is whether the MCU will actually do it. As critics of the idea point out, Phases 4-6 of the MCU have leaned heavily into legacy character, and this approach hasn’t exactly been a success (although opinions differ as to whether this is the reason). Ultimately, only time will tell; until then, one thing does seem certain. A Wolverine is coming, sooner or later, because Marvel won’t allow that brand to die.
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Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.
