This March, Hugh Jackman will take his last bow as Wolverine in Logan, ending a 17-year career playing a superhero. Well, that's been the plan for a couple years now, anyway. However, if Ryan Reynolds had his way, he would haul Jackman out of retirement for a Wolverine/Deadpool team-up. Those two have made an amusing duo in the comics, and almost anything would be better than when they were briefly together in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are among the many who would welcome pairing the clawed mutant and Merc with the Mouth together, but doing so would add complications to their plans.
Following Deadpool's critical and commercial success, Reese and Wernick were appropriately brought back for Deadpool 2, which is intended to set up X-Force. They'll also presumably be attached to Deadpool 3 if/when it's ordered, but Reese said to The Playlist that if a Deadpool/Wolverine movie was ordered, major changes would need to be implemented. He explained:
If you're looking at Deadpool 2, if you're looking at X-Force, if you're looking at Deadpool 3, there's not necessarily room for [another] team-up movie. I think it does create real scheduling and universe issues and something that could be ironed out, but it would need to be ironed out. I don't think any of us operated under the assumption that it would be even possible to do a Deadpool/Wolverine thing, so we just haven't planned for it, it's still not in the plan, but if it were to happen, it would require a hard look at the overall architecture of our storylines.
Right now, the X-Men franchise appears to be splitting off in two directions. New Mutants, Gambit and a possible sequel to X-Men: Apocalypse take care of the PG-13 fare, but Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are carving out their own R-rated corner with Deadpool, and since Deadpool 2 will introduce Cable and Domino, that also paves the way for X-Force. It sounds like the writers already have a basic idea on how this saga will progress, and while a Wolverine/Deadpool team-up would be welcome, it would also require them to significantly alter their plans, not to mention deal with any scheduling issues that may arise. Nevertheless, it would surely be worth the extra effort and changes. After all, Wolverine and Deadpool are both two of the X-Men movie franchise's primary representatives and among the most popular across all media. If Hugh Jackman is game, having Logan fighting alongside Wade Wilson would not only be action-packed, but also rife with comedic potential.
Whether a Wolverine/Deadpool movie becomes a reality or not, you can see Hugh Jackman give possibly his most intense Wolverine performance yet when Logan is released on March 3. Deadpool 2 is slated to hit theaters sometime in 2018.
