Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine Return Supports The Most Radical Secret Wars Theory

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Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine return in Deadpool 3 adds to a game-changing Avengers: Secret Wars theory that changes the MCU forever. Hugh Jackman has exited Wolverine retirement for Deadpool 3, the first MCU Deadpool movie, in one of the biggest superhero movie news of 2022. Though Jackman’s return as Wolverine by itself is a major event, Wolverine’s MCU debut reveals a lot about how the X-Men fit into the Multiverse Saga.
Both the X-Men and the Fantastic Four became accessible to Marvel Studios in 2019 after Disney bought 20th Century Fox. However, whereas the Fantastic Four are getting a movie as part of Marvel’s Phase 6 movie slate, no live-action X-Men-related project other than Deadpool 3 has been announced yet. With Marvel’s Phase 5 already here, it may be too late for the MCU to introduce its Earth-616 X-Men before Avengers: Secret Wars.
Jackman’s Wolverine In Deadpool 3 Continues Marvel’s Multiverse X-Men Plan Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in Deadpool 3 will be the third mutant from the Fox X-Men movies to be revisited in the MCU. The first was Evan Peters’ Quicksilver, who, in the end, was not really the same character from the Fox films but rather a meta-joke. The second was Patrick Stewart’s Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, although Stewart was not playing the exact same version in the X-Men films. Now, Jackman’s Wolverine in Deadpool 3 continues the MCU’s multiverse X-Men plan ahead of Avengers: Secret Wars. Mutants exist in the MCU’s Earth-616, but the X-Men have been a no-show.
The MCU’s X-Men introduction has so far used two different strategies, which makes the mutants’ future in the Marvel universe a bit confusing. On one hand, Marvel is revisiting iconic actors and characters from the Fox X-Men movies before even introducing their definitive versions from the main MCU timeline. At the same time, Marvel’s Phase 4 made mutants MCU canon on Earth-616, with Mr. Marvel’s powers coming from a mutation and Namor confirmed to be a mutant. If mutants have always existed in the MCU, then the absence of X-Men characters like Charles Xavier and Logan becomes an MCU canon headscratcher.
Theory: Secret Wars Reboots The MCU (& Brings In The X-Men) Marvel’s mutants' explanations could end up being way too complex if it tries to answer all plotholes created by the arrival of the X-Men in the MCU. An interesting way to solve the X-Men problem would be to have Avengers: Secret Wars partially reboot the MCU, leading into a new MCU timeline in which the X-Men have always been around. This would be an in-universe reboot, something explained by the MCU’s rules of the multiverse and time travel. Considering that the 2015 Secret Wars comic book arc was used to reorganize Marvel Comics, with characters from the Ultimate Universe being absorbed by Earth-616, Avengers: Secret Wars could do something similar.
Adapting Secret Wars into an Avengers movie without any major long-term implications for the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be a wasted opportunity. One of the most interesting things about a story as epic as Secret Wars is how it changes the world around the X-Men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four forever, regardless of their victory. Given how Doctor Strange 2 introduced Incursions, the idea of entire realities being destroyed or perhaps reworked is already part of the MCU. If Avengers: Secret Wars reboots the MCU in an X-Men: Days of Future Past style, it would be the perfect opportunity to finally bring the Earth-616 X-Men.

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