How Ryan Reynolds Got Hugh Jackman to Return as Wolverine for “Deadpool 3”

One of the most surprising bits of news to hit the movie world in recent months was that somehow, some way, Hugh Jackman is reprising his role as Wolverine for Deadpool 3. After years of their fun-loving back-and-forth, Ryan Reynolds had gotten Hugh Jackman to don the adamantium claws for another go-round, this despite the fact that Wolverine definitively dies in director James Mangold’s Logan. It’s movie magic, people—anything’s possible.

Now, thanks to an interview with Collider, we know how Reynolds managed to get Jackman back into the fold. Reynolds was chatting with Collider to discuss his upcoming holiday film Spirited, but he had to have known he was going to get The Jackman Question. And sure enough, Reynolds was game to answer, revealing that he had a little bit less to do with actually getting Jackman to star in Deadpool 3 as one might expect. Or perhaps he was being overly modest?

“I think you’re giving me too much credit. I don’t believe that I’m responsible for Hugh coming back,” Reynolds told Collider. “I always wanted Hugh to come back. My first meeting with Kevin Feige when Disney bought Fox years ago, maybe three years ago, or three and a half, four years ago, I’m not sure, was about doing a movie with the two of us, a Deadpool Wolverine movie. And that was not possible at the time. And then Hugh just happened to call at that perfect moment and express that he’d be interested in coming back and doing this one more time. And the contents of that conversation, I’ll let Hugh [explain] because I know it’s only inevitable that you and Hugh are going to speak at some point soon, I’m sure. I’ll let Hugh answer that on his own. But he expressed interest in coming back, and then it was my job to take that to Kevin Feige one more time and sell it.”

Reynolds said that getting to see Wade Wilson and Logan in a film together was “beyond any dream I was audacious enough to have.” More from Reynolds:

“It’s not like adding Hugh Jackman to a movie like this is a hard sell. It’s an immediate and emphatic, unqualified yes. It’s a lot of moving parts and Fox and X-Men and all that kind of stuff that Marvel needs to sort through. A lot of red tape in order to make that happen. And they did it. And I’m really grateful that they did it because, for me, working with Hugh is a dream come true. But working with Logan and having Logan and Wade together in a movie is beyond any dream I would ever be audacious enough to have. So I’m really, really super f**king excited to do this film.”

For you who have been keeping the Wolverine-and-Deadpool score, you know that this is not the first time Jackman and Reynolds have appeared in a film together in these roles; it’s just that when that did happen, for 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Reynolds’ Wade Wilson was a shade of the character he’d re-introduce to the world in 2016 with Deadpool. For that 2009 version, Wilson’s mouth was literally sewn shut, which is hilarious in retrospect, considering one of the biggest draws of Reynolds as Deadpool is his unstoppable, hilarious yammering. In fact, that first version of Deadpool was so far from what Reynolds wanted for the character that in a credit sequence for Deadpool 2, his current iteration of the character goes back in time to kill that first version.

The point being? That Deadpool 3 will give us the team-up between Reynolds’ Wade Wilson and Jackman’s Logan that fans, and these two stars, have wanted for a long time. Deadpool 3, to be directed by Shawn Levy, is due in theaters on November 8, 2024.

For more on Hugh Jackman returning as Wolverine, check out these stories:

Ryan Reynolds Explains How Wolverine is Alive for “Deadpool 3” After Dying in “Logan”

Hugh Jackman Returning as Wolverine in “Deadpool 3”

For more on Deadpool 3, check out these stories:

“Deadpool 3” Will See Shawn Levy Direct Ryan Reynolds in Marvel Movie

Kevin Feige Confirms That “Deadpool 3” Will be an MCU Film

Featured image: NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 28: Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds attends “The Adam Project” New York Premiere on February 28, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)