Musings on Wolverine, the Multiverse, and Tony Stark
It’s been a few days since the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer arrived, and I’ve watched it many times since. It’s a great trailer that promises a fun movie with two fan-favorite characters played by the actors who made them big-screen stars, and it gives frustrated Marvel fans some hope that a good one might’ve slipped through Mickey Mouse’s white-gloved claws. But watching a trailer again and again gets the mind wandering, especially when wandering is your mind’s natural state, as mine is. And I noticed something about one of the reveals – or, at least, what looks like a reveal – that indicates Marvel could be using this movie to test the waters for future films.
In the trailer, the TVA suit played by Matthew Macfadyen says, “This Wolverine let down his entire world,” just after we see a de-aged Logan walking among what look like they could be gravestones as haunting music plays. The implication is that he comes from a universe where all the X-Men are dead, and it’s his fault. (I saw a theory about how this happened, and I don’t want to say what it is in case it ends up being true, but if so, it’s great, and comic fans will love it.) That means he’s not the Wolverine we saw in the X-Men films from Fox but a variant from somewhere else in the multiverse – which, I suppose, explains the comic-accurate suit. This fits with Marvel’s embrace of the multiverse for the next chapter of the MCU, which they’re calling “The Multiverse Saga,” as well as the insistence since Deadpool & Wolverine was announced (without its title) that it would not ruin the ending of Logan, which Fox Wolverine’s sudden emergence would negate.
This, like everything involving the multiverse, has its pros and cons. While it’s nice that they don’t want to disturb Wolverine’s previous Marvel appearances, they’re also presenting a Wolverine we don’t know and have no connection with outside of the actor playing him. We’re not seeing an old friend but meeting a stranger, albeit one who looks a lot like the guy we were introduced to via a cage match in 2000. That’s been a complaint about the multiverse for some time; throwing in alternate universe variants of characters from older movies will always feel insincere because we know it’s not them; conversely, if we are to accept them as the same character, it cheapens the one we spent a whole series of movies getting to know. It’s a lot for audiences to accept.
Or is it? I believe that’s something Marvel wants to test with Deadpool & Wolverine. The novelty of having Hugh Jackman show up in an MCU movie as Wolverine should be enough to get people to see it, but what will their reaction be? If they accept this Wolverine despite his not being the same one from the Fox movies, that opens the door for Marvel to bring back anyone they choose without negating major events in previous MCU films in the audience’s minds, specifically character deaths. I think you know who I’m talking about: a dearly departed genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist that would be extremely difficult to recast, to say the least. And the fellow who plays him recently said he would be open to coming back for some more one-liners, repulsor rays, and AC/DC intros.
The circumstances surrounding Wolverine and Iron Man are quite similar; they both exited their roles in memorable moments that fans liked and that definitively ended their stories, and the creatives behind future endeavors have said they won’t undo them. Well, here’s Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine, and the film’s method for retaining the integrity of his final appearance is with a multiverse variant. And if they can get the audience to accept this kind of character resurrection, you can bet they’ll try the same thing again, particularly with Tony Stark. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole thing has been plotted out and storyboarded for Avengers: Secret Wars, with a gold-plated Rolls Royce waiting to be signed over to Robert Downey Jr. And considering how awful and non-threatening the villains have been in these films of late, I wouldn’t be surprised if a certain Mad Titan is on their list of potential multiversal revivals (which would be a huge mistake).
Of course, there are a million ways that this could go wrong, even if audiences embrace the new Wolverine (and I think they will). The execution could be bad, and judging by most of the recent Marvel movies, it probably will be; in other words, what Shawn Levy pulls off in Deadpool & Wolverine, the creatives behind Secret Wars (or whichever movie it is) could flub. And while Deadpool & Wolverine has a lot of goodwill behind it thanks to the previous two Deadpool films and the general love for Hugh Jackman as Logan, the MCU has become a meme of itself, and a previously eager audience no longer trusts it. When you hear that Robert Downey Jr. is coming back as Iron Man, any initial elation quickly turns to dread as you wonder what indignities they’re going to foist upon the next beloved character on their hit list.
But Marvel is desperate, which is probably why Deadpool & Wolverine is happening in the first place, especially in the way it is, with minimal interference from the boobs who’ve turned a guaranteed cash cow into a laughing stock. (The source of my remaining doubt about the film is the She-Hulk writer Kevin Feige forced into the writers’ room.) They need something to turn the runaway train around, and while I think Deadpool & Wolverine will be a hit, it’s probably not going to help future MCU movies; if anything, it’ll make them suffer even more by comparison. If Marvel had some good stuff on deck, that’d be a different story, but Deadpool & Wolverine is being followed by Star-Spangled Falcon, the Blade movie they insist is not dead, and The Fantastic 4, which will make Sue the lead and have a lady Silver Surfer. The rising tide is not going to lift those boats; it’s going to drown them.
That’s why I think this is their way of A/B testing the use of the multiverse and variants to bring discarded characters back – and specifically to resurrect Tony Stark. I’m not saying it’s the only reason the movie is giving us this version of Wolverine, but I think it’s in the mix. And if Deadpool & Wolverine is the success it will almost certainly be, and moviegoers are happy with their alternate universe Wolverine, get set for Robert Downey Jr. to suit up as Iron Man again… just not the one we know.
Comments (2)
Just re-watched Logan. Much better, years later. Jackman made all those movies good and those stand alone Wolverine movies were much different than the source material, but him in character made it work. The bloody action in Logan was intense. The DNA angle using surrogates in Mexico was highly plausible. The only thing I didn’t like was X-24, his evil clone. Felt that The Reavers were strong enough villians that it wasn’t necessary. Both Origins and Logan made massive changes to DeadPool, the story, x-24 and yet, I still liked those movies and they are better looking back than I thought of them when they were released.
Lynn Collins was excellent in Origins and John Carter. Fleeting, but delivered in her prime.
Like you, for some reason, this whole thing made me curious. As for the multiverse, I do not like it, but tbh, X-men stories were always so far out, that I never really knew what was going on half the time.
Trailer made me go back and watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which I really enjoyed, and they made massive changes to the story to accommodate the character, but like the comics, I didn’t really care because it was so character driven.
That’s the thing. Wolverine is such a strong character and Hugh Jackman is such a strong actor, that almost anything with him in the role just works. I don’t know if I’m looking forward to it, but in the trailer, just seeing Jackman act, unfortunately, it was a call back to all the times he played the brooding loner trying not to be an animal, and a man instead. Just seeing him in that kind of cowboy role, as a grizzled old washed up veteran in pain, he just plays it so damn well. He’s right up there with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood as a legendary all-time great. I think the movie will succeed just because fans might show up just out of appreciation for all that Hugh Jackman did before the MCU finally broke out for that stint of time.