Even before the first trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine dropped, there was some doubt about whether the 15-rated threequel justified the return of Hugh Jackman.
Jackman’s tenure as the claw-cladded mutant came to a poignant and powerful end in 2017’s Logan, which even Jackman described as his ‘final outing’ for a portrayal that had been established across nine films.
Fast forward and Wolverine is back, comic book costume and all, for one final hurrah (although the box office returns suggest we’ll certainly get a sequel) alongside his ultimate frenemy, Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson.
Don’t get me wrong – Deadpool & Wolverine has everything a good Deadpool film needs: a killer soundtrack, blood, guts, gore and a host of Easter eggs and cameos that link back to Marvel’s time with Fox.
But, there’s one small problem: it didn’t justify bringing Jackman back out of retirement.
Lots of fans are happy, and hey, I laughed and gasped along, but after the powerful swansong of Jackman’s Wolverine in Logan, it felt to me like a self-indulgent outing for Marvel to try and revive its dwindling numbers.
At the start of the film, Wade says he’s always dreamt of riding with Wolverine and forming a ‘team up’ together.
Fighting it out as fast as their healing abilities can repair them, causing destruction, chaos and anarchy, there’s no denying it delivers big action set pieces.
But as a whole, the film captures that self-indulgent mood: that Wolverine is back simply because Wade wanted him there. It wasn’t about honouring or evolving Wolverine’s character, but simply two besties having fun for the fans.
The expense of bringing Wolverine back is that it devalued his storyline and the emotional impact of his death in Logan.
That’s still true even if, as is a common theme in recent Marvel films, Jackman plays another universe’s ‘variant’ of the original character.
But Deadpool & Wolverine doesn’t tell us anything new about Logan: he has always grappled with his identity as both a hero and a monster and the weight of his guilt for his actions.
Laura (Dafne Keen) aka X-23, Logan’s daughter, born out of experiments with his DNA, tells Logan he’s just like her variant reminding him: ‘You were always the wrong guy, until you weren’t.’
It’s a powerful relationship, but one that was already explored.
And so in the film, history repeats itself, as Wolverine – after his interaction with Laura – again has a change of heart and decides to re-join the fight alongside his friends.
It meant that fans – and Wade – were given what they wanted, a comic book crossover between Wolverine and Deadpool, and the MCU and the X-Men.
But for me, a die-hard fan, it did more harm than good for Jackman to return.
Was it great to see Jackman in the comic book suit? Absolutely. Was his return needed? Not at all.
Once an actor returns, even as a cameo (Chris Evans, we’re looking at you) to a Marvel movie, there’s also the added implication that it can happen again.
Even though Wade encourages Marvel to move on from the multiverse, he jokes that ‘Disney will make him [Jackman] do this till he’s 90’.
After all, that’s what the multiverse offers Marvel: the chance to capitalise on its existing cohort of characters, regardless of whether they’re alive or dead within the main canon, something that the comic book behemoth badly needs after some high-profile box office flops.
And they are clearly leaning into the idea that, in the MCU, no-one is ever really gone. That was seen this weekend at San Diego Comic Con, when Marvel Marvel welcomed back Robert Downey Jr. too.
Downey is the founding father of the universe, who changed the trajectory of cinema forever with the introduction of his Tony Stark in 2008’s Iron Man. But… that character died, in a moment of self-sacrifice that was one of the greatest moments in Marvel’s superhero cinematic history.
Downey will be a different character, as the big, bad, baddie in the Fantastic Four world, Doctor Doom.
But speculation is already mounting that his interpretation of Doom will be yet another ‘variant’ of Iron Man, as seen in the comics.
A pattern is emerging: there is an unnerving lack of finality to Marvel movies that could destroy the credibility and emotional investment in its universe.
The lasting impression is that actors are kept in the universe for life, even if their characters die, as variants.
Sometimes, there needs to be no resurrections. No spin-offs or prequels or timeline disruptions.
While the film is good fun, it wasn’t worth disturbing the legacy or finality of Wolverine’s end in Logan.
Yet again, it’s another example of Marvel’s inability to not reopen chapters of their cinematic universe that have already been firmly closed.
Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine died seven years ago, and no real narrative value – in the wider context for the MCU or the character – was gained by this self-indulgent resurrection.
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