When Hugh Jackman announced that 2017’s Logan would be list time playing the fan-favorite X-Men character it came after almost two continuous decades of suiting up as the Marvel hero. Though the James Mangold-directed movie felt like a fitting end for the character, fans are well aware now that Jackman is officially coming out of retirement and will slick his hair back to play Wolverine in the upcoming third Deadpool movie (Marvel Studios’ first movie with the Ryan Renyolds character). It’s fitting that this would happen apparently as Jackman credits seeing the original Deadpool with being the reason he immediately regretted calling Logan his last X-Men movie.
While speaking with Deadline, Jackman was asked about how the new movie came together, revealing: “Well, I was 20 minutes into watching Deadpool and I had just announced, literally, a few weeks before that Logan was going to be my last, which I fully intended. And then I was like, ‘Uh-oh.’…I was just driving out to the beach. It was mid-August, I had a week off from the show (The Music Man on Broadway), my first week off in eight, nine months, 10 months. And it came to me like, ‘I really want to do that.’ And that was it.
He continued, “As soon as I arrived at the beach, I rang Ryan (Reynolds) just to see what the hell was going on. And then here we are. It was so quick. And trust me, there’s not a morning I don’t wake up where Ryan Reynolds is outside my house with posters saying, ‘Please.’ He’s constantly asking me about it. And I was like, ‘Dude, I’m done. I’m done, I’m done, I’m done, I’m done, I’m done.’ So then when he rang me [back], he was like, ‘Are you serious?’ So yeah. I’m a terrible poker player. All this time I was saying I was done, I really meant it. But anyway, somewhere deep down, this idea was obviously lurking and brewing.”
Reynolds’ announcement also confirmed that Deadpool 3 has an official release date, September 6, 2024. What’s unclear about the film’s status is if it will actually be the ending of the MCU’s Phase Five or the beginning of the MCU’s Phase Six. The movie is now sandwiched between Thunderbolts on July 26, 2024 and Fantastic Four on November 8, 2024.