Could Hugh Jackman's Wolverine come to the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Could Hugh Jackman's Wolverine come to the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
In August 2015 Fox announced they were in the pursuit of reaching a deal with Disney to make X-Men Universe TV shows. Many were skeptical because Fox didn't own the X-Men TV rights, only the film rights. Disney owned the TV rights, with proof in the Wolverine and the X-Men TV series.
Then in October 2015 they officially announced Hellfire for Fox Broadcast Network and Legion for FX cable. Within the time of announcing a Fox series and announcing the shows, Fox must have made a deal with Disney. But what did Disney get in return?
REASON 1: The Russo Brothers and/or Disney Marvel got Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Russo brothers just confirmed they love Wolverine in an interview with Collider:
If the Russos had their pick of Marvel characters, they’d go with: JOE RUSSO: Wolverine. ANTHONY RUSSO: Yeah. JOE RUSSO: First favorite character growing up was Spider-Man, second was Wolverine. One of my most-prized possessions is Incredible Hulk #181. It was his first appearance. Do you have it graded or is it just in your collection? JOE RUSSO: It’s in my collection. It’s sitting in a safe. I won’t disclose where it is. ANTHONY RUSSO: I know where it is. And I would say Wolverine as well, for all of the exciting reasons that we all gravitate to.
Not only do they say they love Wolverine here, Joe says his favorite character as a child was Spider-Man followed by Wolverine. Now Disney Marvel famously made a deal last year that allowed Spider-Man in the MCU and MCU characters to appear in Sony Spider-Man films. And the first film he's appearing in is Captain America: Civil War, which is directed by the Russo brothers, they got their first love, now will they get their second?
REASON 2: Hugh Jackman wants to fight alongside the Avengers and he’s retiring soon cause he’s too old.
Hugh Jackman has already expressed interest for his Wolverine to appear alongside the Avengers.
Here's Jackman talking about the likelihood of appearing in an Avengers film in August:
"I would love it. ... You’re in a very complex world where big, big sums of money are being spent for different franchises and so getting them together is difficult. Two years ago I would have said you’d be a real optimist to think it would ever happen, but weirdly I just think it maybe could. I think there is a possibility that it will happen."
The main thing to note here is this comment was made in between the time Fox announced they wanted to make X-Men TV shows yet before they made their official announcement. Fox was in negotiations with Disney at this time, so it's not unreasonable to believe that Jackman will be in Avengers: Infinity War. His comment about how it was impossible two years ago, but now it's much more possible; it's much more possible because Fox and Disney were in negotiations.
REASON 3: The Reality Stone will break reality
We also know that Avengers Infinity War will have dimension breaking with the Infinity Gauntlet most likely complete with all the power stones, including the Reality Stone, which was first introduced as the red aether in Thor 2: The Dark World.
So it's not unreasonable that space and time could break allowing for other dimensions to seep in such as the Fox X-Men Cinematic Universe that has eight years over the MCU.
Jackman’s Wolverine is also being retired after appearing in the first two X-Men trilogies and his own Wolverine trilogy. They seem to have moved on already with setting their sights on a new spinoff character films with Channing Tatum as Gambit hopefully and also Deadpool. Jackman is getting too old to be Wolverine, which is why the 3rd movie in his character's trilogy will be Old Man Logan.
It's safe to say that Fox doesn't need Wolverine like they once did and Hugh Jackman has been a constant in nerdom ever since he won out the roll to Mel Gibson and Dougray Scott… and then nailed the performance in X-Men because no one knew who he was except for people who saw him on the PBS version of Oklahoma.
So could Fox and Disney have come to some sort of arrangement. Fox has mined Wolverine for all they could get out of Jackman, so why not let his Wolverine’s last time to shine be in Avengers 3 or 4? Why not in exchange for the TV rights to X-Men, something incredibly worthwhile since arguably no one can make a superhero show that doesn't seem like a rip off of X-Men. A show about a bunch of people with superpowers, that's such a ripoff of X-Men!
REASON 4: Hugh Jackman has been the longest running actor to play a superhero that people respect.
For 16 years Hugh Jackman's Wolverine is the most loved X-Men character and has been loved for far longer than any other actor playing a superhero. RDJs only been doing it for 8 years, the longest of any MCU actor. Jackman's been Wolverine this entire millennium. So break the dimensional wall between the Marvel Fox and Marvel Disney Cinematic Universes and let Hugh Jackman claw Chris Evan's shield and/or Jackman fight Hemsworth and/or Mark Ruffalo rip Hugh Jackman in half!
Jackman has been doing this for 16 years, so it only makes sense to break that dimensional wall between Fox and Disney and cross the most loved superhero actor into the MCU. It’ll only add more money to the Avengers: Infinity War gross, something Disney may be afraid of since each successive Marvel movie they have made has seen slightly diminishing returns. Jackman has been a superhero the longest so put him in an official Marvel movie already!
Hell, knowing Marvel, I can totally see them not only throwing Hugh Jackman in Avengers: Infinity War, I can also see them finally giving him his yellow suit for his final foray.
Here's the UPDATED list of Disney's upcoming films:
Disney:
Alice Through the Looking Glass - May 27, 2016
The BFG - July 1, 2016
Pete's Dragon - August 12, 2016
Beauty and the Beast - March 17, 2017
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - May 26, 2017
Untitled Disney live-action fairy tale film - December 22, 2017
Untitled Disney live-action fairy tale film - November 2, 2018
Untitled Disney live-action fairy tale film - March 29, 2019
Untitled DisneyToon Studios film - April 12, 2019
Untitled Disney live-action fairy tale film - November 8, 2019
Disney Animation Studios / Pixar Animation Studios:
Finding Dory - June 17, 2016
Moana - November 23, 2016
Cars 3 - June 16, 2017
Coco November 22, 2017
Gigantic - March 9, 2018
Toy Story 4 - June 15, 2018
The Incredibles 2 - June 21, 2019
Untitled Pixar film - March 13, 2020
Untitled Pixar film - June 19, 2020
Untitled Disney Animation film - November 25, 2020
LucasFilm:
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - December 16, 2016
Star Wars: Episode VIII - December 15, 2017
Untitled Han Solo Anthology Story - 2018
Star Wars: Episode IX - May 24, 2019
Indiana Jones and the Fifth Film - July 19, 2019
Untitled Boba Fett Anthology Story - 2020
Marvel Studios:
Doctor Strange - November 4, 2016
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - May 5, 2017
Spider-Man: Homecoming - July 28, 2017
Thor: Ragnarok - November 3, 2017
Black Panther - February 16, 2018
Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 - May 4, 2018
Ant-Man and the Wasp - July 6, 2018
Captain Marvel - March 8, 2019
Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2 - May 3, 2019
And Fox's upcoming slate:
Fox:
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates - July 8, 2016
A Cure for Wellness - September 23, 2016
Why Him? - November 11, 2016
Assassin's Creed - December 21, 2016
Hidden Figure - January 13, 2017
The Mountain Between Us - February 10, 2017
Mother/Daughter - May 12, 2017
X-Men Universe:
X-Men: Episode VI - Apocalypse - May 27, 2016
Wolverine 3 - March 3, 2017
Tentpole:
Independence Day: Resurgence - June 24, 2016
Assassin's Creed - December 23, 2016
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - December 25, 2016
Maze Runner: The Death Cure - February 17, 2017
Kingsman 2 - June 16, 2017
War for the Planet of the Apes - July 14, 2017
Murder on the Orient Express - November 10, 2017
The Greatest Showman on Earth - December 25, 2017
Alien / Predator Universe:
Alien: Covenant - October 6, 2017
Unt. Blompkamp Alien Film - TBD
Predator 4 - TBD
BlueSky Studios:
Ice Age: Episode V - Collision Course - July 22, 2016
Ferdinand - April 7, 2017
Anubis - March 23, 2018
