Hey! This story is loaded with spoilers for Deadpool and Wolverine. Stop reading now if you don’t want to know details about the movie.
Leading up to the release of Deadpool and Wolverine, there were countless rumors about who might show up in cameo roles. By now, you likely have seen reports about the various superheroes that appeared, many from the 20th Century Fox era of Marvel storytelling. And one, in particular, from a failed project that had fans excited, but never came to pass: Channing Tatum’s take on Gambit, which was the butt of several jokes in Deadpool and Wolverine. I’m not here to talk about those cameos, though. I want to focus on one, in particular, in case it leads to something even bigger.
Die hard fans of the Wolverine figured we were going to see variants of the clawed X-Man throughout the movie. And we were right, but something was off. Some of the rumors claimed that these variants would be played by actors who once flirted with the role, from Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe to Dougray Scott. They didn’t happen. Hugh Jackman ended up playing all of the different Wolverines, from the brown-and-orange-suited Hulk fighter to Chris Claremont’s “Fever Dream” Wolverine, crucified by The Reavers on an “X” cross.
Well, Jackman played all of the Wolverines except one.
In one unexpected twist, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) walked up on a Wolverine tending to his motorcycle. He was played by former Superman and staple of the now-defunct DCEU, Henry Cavill. And as Deadpool says in the scene, it just feels right! Cavill can’t play Superman anymore. That role now belongs to David Corenswet, the lead in James Gunn’s upcoming DC movie Superman. What if he could play Wolverine in upcoming Marvel movies?
There has to be a reason why Henry Cavill is the only actor not named Hugh Jackman to appear in Deadpool and Wolverine. Either the movie is littered with multiple actors playing Wolverine, or you ask Jackman to assume the identity of every Logan variant. Only, director Shawn Levy went out his way to cast one actor to play a Wolverine variant, and it was Henry Cavill.
And I think that means Cavill is in play to assume the Wolverine role after Hugh Jackman finally is done.
Maybe this was a test bubble. A chance for fans to see what Cavill would look like as Wolverine, to respond. And fans so far have been loving it. Cavill just turned 41 years old, and as you can tell in that scene, he looks the part, and can continue to look the part for years. Jackman is 55. That’s more than a decade of Cavill turns as Wolverine that could happen!
Now yes, Cavill has been down this road before:
But the door was closing on the DCEU when he appeared in Black Adam, and for now, we know that the MCU is going to need more X-Men. And yes, Disney might want Hugh Jackman to play Logan until he’s 90. But having a suitable backup makes sense, and Cavill’s the right choice.
