IN some pretty surprising news, Hugh Jackman announced in a rather comical fashion that he would be joining his good buddy Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 3, currently scheduled for release in September 2024.
Last seen in 2016’s bloody and extremely well-received Logan – which, at least up to now, had served as Jackman’s swan song as the iconic and laconic adamantium-clawed superhero – this news was not something anyone was expecting.
If anything, with Marvel planning to relaunch the X-Men and mutants in the MCU at some point in the near future, news of a new actor playing Wolverine was thought to have been on the cards.
After about a minute long monologue where Reynolds explains how stumped he was at coming up with a story for the new movie, he throws out a random idea.
“Hey, Hugh, you want to play Wolverine one more time?” he asks as Jackman eats something and walks up the stairs in the background.
“Yeah, sure, Ryan,” Jackman replies. The video ends with Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ – ‘you’ sounds an awful lot like Hugh. The Deadpool logo appears, before being sliced by Wolverine’s claws, leaving behind three slashes.
Deadpool himself has not been seen on screen since 2018’s Deadpool 2, directed by David Leitch (who was most recently behind the camera for Bullet Train), so a movie featuring him was almost equally anticipated.
However, the sale of 20th Century Fox, the studio that owns the rights to X-Men and Deadpool, was being finalised at that point, leaving the character’s fate up in the air. Both films with Reynolds as the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ made US$780 million (RM3.6 billion) each, is a popular choice for cosplayers at conventions, and has a lasting pop culture presence, so his return to cinemas was inevitable.
A potentially big issue in the eyes of many fans is how Disney will square the violent and profane Deadpool with the decidedly more family friendly Marvel Cinematic Universe. Attaching Shawn Levy (Free Guy, The Adam Project), someone not exactly known for edginess, might throw up red flags for the hardcore fans though the screenwriters pledged there wouldn't be a change in tone.
Of course, he was handpicked by Reynolds – who has been playing Deadpool since a bastardised attempt in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine – and has been very hands on when it comes to staying true to the character.
Following Patrick Stewart’s brief return as the similarly iconic Professor X in this past summer’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the question now is whether this is a one time trip for Jackman or will he be a more permanent fixture in the MCU? – The Vibes, September 28, 2022
