The internet has been ablaze lately with a steady stream of details and images being released about the upcoming Deadpool 3, which began shooting on May 22nd.
It seemed the jets had very much cooled after the initial shock announcement that Hugh Jackman would be reprising his iconic role as Wolverine for the third Deadpool movie, with sparse details about the project having been released since then (in typical Marvel fashion). Leaks are almost inevitable these days, though, so I’m surprised Marvel managed to keep things under wraps until last week, when images of Reynolds’ new, brighter Deadpool costume made its way online, leading some fans to decry what they view as the “Disney-fying” of Deadpool, despite the fact that Marvel has already confirmed his latest outing will be R-rated.
This bodes well for Jackman’s Wolverine, who never lacks a heart, but is at his absolute best when allowed to express his gruff, profane, and violent tendencies, best encapsulated in the masterpiece that is Logan. As of today, we now have even more to go on, as not only will we be treated to a returning Wolverine (who will very likely be a multiversal variant of the character), but he will also finally don his iconic yellow outfit from the comics. Having grown up in the ‘90s with X-Men: The Animated Series, my inner child is doing cartwheels at this very moment! The possibility of Jackman’s Wolverine wearing the suit was previously alluded to in a deleted scene in The Wolverine, where he is gifted it by an ally but never ended up wearing it, so it is no surprise that this never made it into the movie’s final cut.
This is not the first time two of the most famous Canadian superheroes have appeared onscreen either, as they had previously appeared in the critically maligned X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where Reynolds played an utterly bastardized version of the Merc with a Mouth that even he and subsequent Deadpool movies have criticized over the years. It seems redemption is a throughline in the Deadpool series, and now more than ever, as shockwaves struck superhero fandom once again with the announcement that, of all people, Jennifer Garner will be reprising her role as Elektra Natchios, having last played the character in 2005’s Elektra, which received even worse reviews than X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
To say that this announcement was left of field would be a gross understatement. Garner’s Elektra is by no means the first character people think of when it comes to reprisals, even in this day and age when multiverse narratives allow studios to return pretty much any actor they want from previous superhero renditions, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men, or more recently Michael Keaton’s Batman. However, Garner had always been a good fit for the role and did a great job in spite of the material she was forced to work with.
Though, there may be more to this than it seems because Elektra was a spin-off to the character’s initial feature-length debut in 2003’s Daredevil, with Ben Affleck depicting the titular blind hero. This raises questions about Affleck’s own potential inclusion in the film, as it is no secret that the actor has strived to deliver a truly great superhero movie, but has been let down by the material, while still delivering solid performances as both Daredevil and Batman. Of course, this is merely speculative, and we may not even know if he will be included until the movie is actually released, but it may also wind up being the worst-kept secret in Hollywood, à la Maguire and Garfield’s appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Deadpool 3 is currently slated for release on May 3rd, 2024.