“SO, THE truth is,” says Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman, “I meant what I said, when I said ‘I’m done’ - that Logan was going to be my last.”
Be that as it may, the fact that Jackman (55) is speaking at a press conference for Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine – a double-header blockbuster that pairs Wolverine with Ryan Reynolds’ wisecracking, foul-mouthed antihero – shows that he was not quite ready to hang up the claws just yet.
“I announced it before we’d shot Logan, and about three days after that, I saw Deadpool 1 – about 15 minutes into the movie, I was like ‘Oops, maybe I should have watched this first’,” the Australian star said.
“For the next four or five years, I could see those two characters together. I was watching the movie, all I kept thinking about was 48 Hrs, The Odd Couple, I could see how these two characters would work.
“And then I can tell you the date, August 14, 2022, I was driving, and it came to me that I wanted to do it again, that I wanted to do it with Ryan playing Deadpool, and I wanted these two characters together.”
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At the end of 2017′s Logan (spoiler alert), the titular character – who, for the avoidance of doubt, had the codename ‘Wolverine’ – dies.
As far as fans were concerned, that was the end of his story, but thanks to the elasticity of Marvel’s theory of multiverses, Jackman did not have to quit if he did not want to.
“We don’t bring Logan from Logan back to life,” says Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy (55).
“We definitely bring Wolverine back to the screen, but Logan happened. It is, in fact, a movie that Ryan and I revere – I think it’s one of the great masterpieces of the genre. And [Logan director] James Mangold knows my reverence for his movie.”
“Logan is very sacred,” agrees star Ryan Reynolds (47), who also co-wrote Deadpool & Wolverine.
“I mean, we all revere that film and Hugh’s performance, so finding the ‘how’ was really interesting.
“But once we locked into that, in large part thanks to Hugh, and his thought process around the role and the character, then it was just so much fun.”
In Deadpool & Wolverine we meet Reynolds’ Wade Wilson, no longer operating as Deadpool, six years after the events of 2018′s Deadpool 2.
He has left his mercenary days behind him, living a quiet life as Wade, until one day, the Time Variance Authority (TVA) – an organisation located outside of space and time, created to preserve the “Sacred Timeline” and avoid the outbreak of another multiversal war – pulls him into a new mission, with his home universe facing an existential threat.
Reluctantly, the ever quippy and crude Wade dons his red Deadpool costume once more, tracking down a Wolverine from throughout the multiverses to help him on a mission to change the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Over the course of Deadpool’s two previous films, audiences have fallen in love with his fourth-wall breaking, his self-referential jokes, and his crude, profane sense of humour, all of which have made him a refreshing addition to the expansive world of Marvel.
Director Levy, best known for directing the Night At The Museum films, says he, as a Marvel fan himself, enjoyed entering into a dialogue about the superhero genre through the medium of comedy in Deadpool & Wolverine.
“I actually think that by commenting on the genre, you are acknowledging the dialogue amongst the fans, you’re contributing to that conversation,” he says.
“Fans of the MCU, and I am one, they’re talking about the genre, where it’s at, where it’s been, where’s it going?
“And so to be making an MCU movie, and to be asking those same questions, and commenting on that conversation – I think it is connective with the fan base. It’s certainly respectful of the fan base.
“And the key is to not go to that well too often. Because if you are too meta, too often, you don’t allow the audience to invest in the story.”
Aside from Deadpool and Wolverine, fans will be treated to some returning characters – like Rob Delaney reprising his role as Peter Wisdom – and some new additions to the cast in Levy’s continuation of the story.
The Crown star Emma Corrin (28) plays mutant villain Cassandra Nova, who has telekinetic and telepathic powers, and Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen (49) plays TVA agent Mr Paradox.
Corrin, says that being part of the project “was a playground” from the minute they were first approached by Shawn Levy, who gave them “the pitch of a lifetime”.
They laugh, however, when they recall the circumstances around receiving that fateful call to join the world of Marvel.
“I was doing theatre when I got the call, so didn’t hesitate,” Corrin jokes.
“Also, I’d just got a chemical peel – I decided to get a chemical peel whilst I was on stage in the West End. Don’t do it – I didn’t really know what it was, my whole face shed.
“I remember my team saying, we’ve got this meeting, and I was so excited for it, but (I thought) ‘I can’t do this, I mean, like, I look like I’ve had a terrible accident, it’s not great’.
“And then I Googled Cassandra, and I was like ‘Oh, I’m fine, because she looks f*****’.”
Rob Delaney, who appeared in Deadpool 2, describes having the “two towering legends” of Deadpool and Wolverine together as “like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, chocolate and peanut butter together – we all want that”.
“They’re so amazing – yes, Deadpool and Wolverine, but also Ryan and Hugh, under the direction of Shawn Levy. It makes an amazing movie,” says Delaney (47).
“I mean, every aspect of it is so funny, and violent. There’s some disgusting violence in it that I think people will find delicious.
“And it’s got a big, bold, beating heart that people are going to like.”
