It’s a big moment for Marvel fans everywhere. The Merc With a Mouth is finally making the jump into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Deadpool & Wolverine, the third film in the mutant anti-hero’s solo franchise. As the only MCU movie releasing in theaters this year, the first proper crossover between the two titular main characters (no, we’re not counting Weapon XI in X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is practically guaranteed to make a big splash at the box office. Between record-breaking pre-ticket sales and the many multiversal cameos of fan-favorite characters that are expected, the movie is set to be a major shot in the arm for the MCU.
However, there is a concern that’s still hanging over the movie as we head into its release. Marvel is clearly banking hard on the return of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine being a big draw for audiences. Ryan Reynolds has even made a point of saying on the press tour that “no one can do it except him” in regards to Jackman portraying the character. But if Deadpool & Wolverine uses the multiverse to bring over even more of the Fox X-Men versions of characters into the mainline MCU, they’ll be missing a huge opportunity to relaunch the X-Men series with their own interpretation. Let’s look at why, for the good of the franchise’s future, it would be far better if the return of Jackman’s Wolverine and other Fox Marvel characters was a one-time deal.
Paging Mr. Pool
It’s no surprise that out of all the Marvel film franchises Disney inherited from 20th Century Fox, Deadpool was the one Marvel Studios decided to directly incorporate into the MCU. Not only were the first two films both critically and commercially successful, but Deadpool has always been an outlier among Marvel’s pantheon of characters. His fourth-wall breaking antics and manic personality mean Deadpool doesn’t require much of any explanation or foundational character work to get people to accept his inclusion in a given story. Fans and audiences would likely have been fine with him just popping up in the MCU even without any multiversal justification.
But a multiversal justification we are receiving with the film’s inciting incident, which, at least according to the trailers, involves Deadpool getting swept up in the machinations of the Time Variance Authority. The time-space bureaucracy from the Loki series is represented in the film by Matthew Macfayden’s Agent Paradox, who crashes Wade Wilson’s reality to recruit him for an important mission. It’s presumably through this plot device that Deadpool meets Jackman’s Wolverine and a host of other Marvel characters, with confirmed appearances from the likes of Tyler Mane’s Sabretooth and rumored cameos like Jennifer Garner’s Elektra. Given that we can see the destroyed 20th Century Fox logo in what appears to be the void at the end of time, Deadpool & Wolverine seems to be making the Disney Fox purchase and the “end” of the Fox X-Men universe into metatextual elements of its plot.
This makes perfect sense as part of a Deadpool story since Wade can address the audience and comment on out-of-universe developments. There are even jokes about Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige in the film’s marketing. But taking this approach highlights how the Fox universe (Fox-verse?) and the creative impulses that defined it have long since aged out of fashion. Deadpool is the exception because of his atypical circumstances, and Reynolds’ take on the role would feel right at home hanging out with Marvel’s stable of regular stars. Moving Deadpool into the MCU is likely going to be the big win that the franchise sorely needs right now. But holding onto versions of characters from films made decades ago, many of whom existed before the MCU even began, would be a massive creative roadblock.
Ex-Men United
To give credit where it’s due, Fox’s X-Men franchise was one of the earliest modern comic book movie success stories, predating Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight films, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, even when they were new, the X-Men movies were indicative of an old school mentality in Hollywood filmmaking when it came to established IP: that the source material was something to be embarrassed by, and movies needed to be more “grounded” so general audiences can get invested. Shying away from the colorful soap opera and sci-fi fantasy elements that helped make X-Men comics popular in the first place in favor of director Bryan Singer’s sterile, network television aesthetic was the franchise’s original sin, one it never quite escaped even 20 years later.
That’s not to say the movies didn’t have their highlights, like Jackman’s take on Wolverine, the relationship between Professor X and Magneto, and some memorable action sequences such as Nightcrawler’s attack on the White House in X2 or the Sentinel battles in Days of Future Past. But many beloved characters from the comics were shortchanged by the films, either given insignificant roles or altered so much that they barely resemble their comic counterparts. Some of the worst examples include Cyclops having little to do in the original trilogy before being unceremoniously killed off early in X-Men: The Last Stand, Storm never really getting the chance to explore her backstory, Gambit only making a single appearance and never establishing his relationship with Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Colossus and Jubilee mostly existing in the margins, and Emma Frost, Psylocke and Apocalypse being reduced to one-dimensional villains.
The wasted potential of the X-Men movies extends to other areas, such as bungling the Dark Phoenix Saga (twice!), having an incredibly confusing continuity, and going out of their way to not use the team’s comic book costumes, a tendency that X-Men ‘97 recently made fun of. We bring all this up not to slam the old movies, but to call attention to how incongruous these decisions are with what Marvel Studios has done with their own films. The creative approach that kept the X-Men franchise feeling like it was permanently stuck in 2003 is completely out of step with where the MCU went in the years since, with a heavy focus on continuity, adapting the looks of their iconic characters, and embracing much of the pop sci-fi weirdness of the comic books. Trying to merge these two franchises on a permanent basis would be a bizarre choice, but it might just be the bizarre choice Marvel Studios for some reason wants to make.
Can We Please Get a New Wolverine?
Hugh Jackman obviously isn’t the first actor from the Fox X-Men movies to reprise their role in the MCU. Patrick Stewart’s Professor X was in Multiverse of Madness, and Kelsey Grammer’s Beast was in The Marvels’ post-credits scene. Between these characters and several actors from Sony’s Spider-Man films appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home, it seems that Marvel is going all-in on the Multiverse Saga pulling in versions of characters from non-MCU franchises. But at this point, it feels like a case of severe diminishing returns. Yes, No Way Home was a fun movie that made good use of its crossover guest stars and found clever ways to rise above your average legacy sequel, but enough is enough. Since No Way Home’s release, these kinds of stunt cameos have become the most groan-worthy aspects of their respective films, and Wanda had the right idea when she killed them all.
The wave of porting over previous versions of Marvel film characters is not just a lazy trend to cash in on nostalgia, but it’s also starting to hamper the possibilities for the MCU’s future. While it’s sort of cool to finally see Jackman don the iconic blue and yellow costume, it’s too little too late. With all love to his contributions to the role, Jackman is 55 years old, and expecting him to keep playing Wolverine after this film is bordering on absurd. He also already received one big farewell in Logan, which came out all the way back in 2017. Marvel will only have one chance to reintroduce their own version of the X-Men in the MCU, and fixating on older actors instead of being open to fresh possibilities would be a mistake. We know an X-Men reboot is currently in development at Marvel Studios, with Deadline reporting that Michael Leslie is writing the script, but the prospect will be far less exciting if we’ve already met all of its stars.
What makes all of this weirder is that we are getting a brand new take on the Fantastic Four in the MCU. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach will be taking on the roles of Marvel’s First Family, and the concept art we’ve already seen hints at the movie going in a 1960s retro-futurism direction. If the F4 can get this kind of treatment, why not the X-Men? What is the purpose of being beholden to the questionable creative decisions of decades-old movies for the sake of showing audiences something they’ve already seen before? The MCU has made its share of missteps too, especially more recently, but there’s still plenty of room for them to turn things around. We know Marvel Studios is capable of putting out high quality X-Men media with X-Men ‘97. There’s no excuse for whatever they do with the X-Men in live action being anything less than stellar, and that would most assuredly necessitate a clean slate to work with.
Of course, it is possible that these fears are unfounded. Perhaps Deadpool & Wolverine will surprise us and find a way around the concerns we’ve expressed. But as Marvel delves further into the Multiverse Saga, hopefully they start to see the value in allowing new versions of their iconic characters to take the spotlight. And seriously, please let someone new play Wolverine.
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.
