Deadpool & Wolverine is only months away, but we're still no clearer to understanding just how the MCU movie is bringing Hugh Jackman's Wolverine back.
Ever since his return was announced in September 2022, fans have speculated about how he'll return following the character's death in Logan. Both Ryan Reynolds and Jackman have been keen to stress that Deadpool 3 won't undo this ending.
"All because of this device they have in the Marvel world of moving around timelines, now we can go back because it's 'science'," Jackman told The Jess Cagle Show in December 2022 about his return.
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"So I don't have to screw with the Logan timeline which was important to me and I think probably to the fans."
Assuming that he meant a storytelling device as opposed to a literal device, Jackman was hinting at the now-established multiverse in the MCU being used for Wolverine's return. It's not our Wolverine; it's a different Wolverine.
And it's something that the new Deadpool 3 trailer appears to confirm.
In the trailer, we see Matthew Macfadyen's TVA agent (rumoured, but not confirmed, to be Paradox) say that, "This Wolverine let down his entire world". We also see Wolverine in front of what look to be graves and Deadpool later says Wolverine's "world went to shit".
None of this lines up with the Wolverine we knew from the X-Men movies, so it's as big of a clue as we've had to suggest this is a different Wolverine.
Whatever happened to Wolverine's world is starting to happen to Deadpool's world, likely leading him to seek out Wolverine with the help of the TVA, allowing him to jump across either timelines or universes (or both).
If it's a Variant of Wolverine, then whatever happens in Deadpool 3 won't contradict Wolverine's journey across the X-Men movies and his eventual demise in Logan.
Having said that, there is still a slight chance that it might be the same Wolverine.
To refresh your memory, shortly before the events of Logan, Charles Xavier had a telepathic seizure which led to the deaths of multiple X-Men. This could be the event where Wolverine "let down the entire world", with Deadpool 3 taking place shortly after this incident but before Logan.
This seems unlikely though as the Wolverine we see in the trailer doesn't quite fit with the one we saw in Logan. For one, our Wolverine was never keen on wearing the yellow spandex of the comics, and he doesn't seem as old as the Logan version.
There's also the fact that even though the Xavier incident was devastating, it wasn't exactly world-changing apart from for those directly involved.
Alternatively, just as Logan was inspired by the 'Old Man Logan' comic book arc, Deadpool 3 could also have been inspired by the same source material.
In that story, Wolverine is tricked into killing all of the X-Men and with most of the heroes gone, the world is ruled by supervillains including Doctor Doom and Abomination.
Fans already think the first Deadpool 3 trailer hinted at Doctor Doom's arrival, so it's possible that the movie is inspired by this story. This could mean that Emma Corrin's Cassandra Nova is one of the supervillains who has taken over Wolverine's world.
It certainly feels a cleaner approach than messing with the established timeline for Wolverine, but we're sure that the movie will still have plenty of surprises up its sleeve when it finally lands in cinemas this July.
Deadpool & Wolverine is released in UK cinemas on July 25 and in US cinemas on July 26.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
