Henry Cavill’s appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine was brilliant, but Marvel Studios missed an opportunity to make this sequence even better and solve a major Wolverine casting issue in the MCU. Despite hanging up the claws and retiring from his iconic role after 2017’s Logan, Hugh Jackman returned as James “Logan” Howlett, a.k.a. Wolverine, in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine. His inclusion alongside Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with a Mouth helped the Phase 5 movie become one of Marvel Studios’ most successful installments, but also created some problems.
Deadpool & Wolverine established 20th Century Fox’s X-Men universe as an alternate reality in the MCU’s multiverse, dubbed Earth-10005, which should one day allow its titular antiheroes to join the MCU’s main continuity. Deadpool & Wolverine took advantage of Marvel’s recent multiversal exploration by introducing many variants of its eponymous heroes, with Wolverine’s variants including Old Man Logan, Patch, a Wolverine of comic-accurate height and more. However, one of these variants demonstrated how the others should have been introduced, and Marvel really missed an opportunity by avoiding this casting choice.
Even though some of Deadpool & Wolverine was set in Earth-10005, Hugh Jackman did not reprise his role of that universe’s Wolverine, who met his demise at the hands of X-24 in Logan. Instead, Jackman returned primarily as the “Worst Wolverine”, a version who did nothing to stop his X-Men family from being massacred before going on a killing spree of humans and mutants alike, and Jackman also appeared as a number of Wolverine’s other variants. In fact, Hugh Jackman played seven different versions of Wolverine – all but one.
The one variant of Wolverine that Hugh Jackman didn’t play in Deadpool & Wolverine was instead played by former Superman actor Henry Cavill. This was a surprising cameo appearance from the Man of Steel, The Witcher and Argylle actor, as he became only the third actor to play Wolverine in live-action, behind Hugh Jackman and Troye Sivan from the opening of 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The fact that Marvel cast Hugh Jackman as most of Wolverine’s variants, however, might have backed the studio into a corner when considering the mutant’s future in the MCU.
Recent speculation has suggested that Hugh Jackman will be returning as Wolverine for an indefinite number of years, though the actor has previously stated that it’s unlikely he’ll play the character for much longer, if ever again. It takes a huge amount of work to become Wolverine and, at 56 years old, Hugh Jackman may simply be becoming too old to play an action-based and physically-impeccable hero. Deadpool & Wolverine had the chance to introduce the MCU’s new Wolverine, but, instead, Marvel just made recasting Hugh Jackman even harder.
Deadpool & Wolverine suggested that most variants of Wolverine look exactly like Hugh Jackman, which leaves a slim margin that the official Wolverine of the MCU looks like someone else. While, before, Hugh Jackman had only played one version of Wolverine, he’s now suited up as eight different variants across a variety of Marvel Comics’ more iconic storylines. This will make it significantly harder for a new actor to fill Hugh Jackman’s shoes, and may even scare off potential stars who Marvel approaches, so only time will tell what the future holds for Wolverine in the MCU.
