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It has been over five years since the Wolverine met his end, succumbing to the fatal injuries he sustained during the climactic battle with X-24 in the 2017 James Mangold directorial Logan. It was intended to be the final time that Hugh Jackman would appear as the character, bringing an end to a 17-year-long journey that began with Bryan Singer's X-Men in 2000.
In a surprising turn of events, it was announced in September 2022 that Jackman would be reprising the role as a part of the Ryan Reynolds-starrer Deadpool 3. Logan director James Mangold, in an interview with Variety, commented on the character being a part of the film, saying there's a part of him that wishes they'd "let it be."
However, he also acknowledged that the character would have been brought back anyway, in one form or another. He further added that the makers would extract as much as they could out of it in the franchise, adding that he didn't "measure" his success by bringing an end to the character, and he had ended the conversation there.
"I can’t say that there’s a part of me that doesn’t wish that we’d let it be. But there was always going to be another Wolverine. There could be a baby Wolverine and a cartoon Wolverine. As much liquid as they can squeeze out of that rag, they’re going to try to. I don’t measure my success on a movie like Logan with whether we ended the conversation. I ended my conversation."
Logan marked James Mangold's second outing as a director with a major film franchise
Logan marked James Mangold's second film that fell under an extensive franchise (Marvel Entertainment) and came after his 2013 directorial The Wolverine. He previously had worked only on independent and major studio-backed feature films and would go back to it, making Ford v Ferrari, which starred Matt Damon and Christian Bale.
James Mangold came back to helm a major franchise film in 2022, taking over direction responsibilities for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny after Steven Spielberg stepped down. However, he made it clear that he wasn't interested in working on a spin-off film, calling the process "large-scale advertising."
Nevertheless, the Walk the Line filmmaker has more franchise films in store. James Mangold is set to direct Swamp Thing with DC and an origin story that falls under the Star Wars franchise. He was quick to clarify that both of them would be standalone films, explaining how he looked at projects.
"While I’m sure DC views Swamp Thing as a franchise, I would be viewing it as a very simple, clean, Gothic horror movie about this man/monster. Just doing my own thing with this, just a standalone."
Describing the Star Wars project, James Mangold told Empire that it was “a kind of Ten Commandments of Star Wars.”
"I wanted to make a kind of Bible movie, a kind of Ten Commandments of Star Wars – kind of a Cecil B DeMille film about the arrival of the Force, and that’s what I’ve been pecking away at between press events. That’s the idea."
Hugh Jackman on reprising his role as The Wolverine
Speaking to Variety in October 2022, Hugh Jackman revealed that he felt that Wolverine's journey was over until he watched Deadpool. Jackman did mean it when he retired from playing Wolverine publicly during the Logan press tours, but it was only after he watched Deadpool that he realized that his character had more to do, looking past its demise in the James Mangold directorial.
He added that he thought that he would "be better" at playing the role and that he felt more comfortable in his skin in real life and as the character.
"I went to a screening of Deadpool. I was 20 minutes in, and I was like, "Ah, damn it!"A little part of me now thinks I’d be better at it. Is that arrogance of age or something? Wolverine’s a tortured character - more tortured than me. But I always get the feeling of him being comfortable in his own skin. And I feel more comfortable in my own skin now, even though it’s messier."
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Morena Baccarin, and others, Deadpool 3 is slated to hit the big screens on May 3, 2024.
