It’s been a while since anyone has made the world this nervous. Deadpool and Wolverine may have just given us our brand new MCU Wolverine—the Wolverine who will pick up the claws after Avengers: Secret Wars and replace Hugh Jackman as the X-Men’s iconic hero. News from Marvel’s Comic-Con presentation, combined with Easter eggs from She-Hulk, may have just confirmed that Henry Cavill’s version of Wolverine is the one from the main MCU timeline, aka Universe 616.

Two actors have played Wolverine in live-action: the legendary Hugh Jackman and, of course, Henry Cavill. We think this fun little wink at fan casting in Deadpool and Wolverine may wind up being more than just another gratuitous cameo. When Deadpool is on his mission across time and space to find Wolverine, he encounters all sorts of Logans from across the multiverse, many from classic X-Men comics. In every universe Deadpool travels to, the Wolverine he encounters looks like Hugh Jackman—except for one. The rules of the Marvel Multiverse and how variants work are a little convoluted.

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange implied that variants of the same person look different across universes. But every variant of Doctor Strange that we’ve met looks like Benedict Cumberbatch.

Loki handled variants best by showing us that some Loki variants look like Tom Hiddleston, but there are also Loki variants with very different faces, races, sexes, and even species. So, what does this have to do with Wolverine? I found it interesting that there was only one Wolverine that had a different face from the others that all looked like Hugh Jackman. That got me wondering—why does this specific Wolverine look different from all the others? The obvious answer is that they just wanted to have some fun and give a nod to the popular fan casting of Henry Cavill as Wolverine. But I’m wondering if Marvel actually has plans to take this cameo even further.

Could it be that this universe Deadpool traveled to was actually the mainline MCU? There’s evidence in this scene, as well as in She-Hulk and Captain America: Brave New World, that suggests this is the MCU Wolverine.

In She-Hulk, we see an article on a website that talks about a man with metal claws getting into a bar brawl—a clear reference to Wolverine, and more specifically, a veiled reference to the first time we see Wolverine and his adamantium claws in a bar fight in the first X-Men movie. Right under that article about a man with metal claws, we see an article about why there’s a giant man sticking out of the ocean. This is, of course, in reference to the giant Celestial from The Eternals.

At Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, we got footage from Captain America: Brave New World, where we hear mention that this Celestial is made of adamantium, the same metal that coats Wolverine’s skeleton. Wolverine agreed to let himself be coated in adamantium because he was hungry for revenge. Feeling vengeful can be a nasty habit. This evidence suggests that this Wolverine might be the MCU’s version, who is still in his rugged loner stage of life, drifting through bar fights and waiting to be found by the X-Men, who don’t yet exist in the MCU timeline.

Wolverine’s Future in the MCU: Is Henry Cavill Taking Over?

As of now, mutants and the X-Men aren’t a thing in the MCU—not really. We’ve had a hint of the mutant X-gene in Ms. Marvel, but the concept of mutants, Charles Xavier, and his mutant research isn’t established yet. That’s another reason why this Wolverine could be the MCU’s Wolverine. Bar fights aren’t really something that Wolverine participates in after joining the X-Men, but they were quite common when he was a rugged loner, like in X-Men (2000), before he joined the team. It makes sense that the MCU’s Wolverine would be drifting through life, getting into bar fights along the way, and exercising that classic temper because he hasn’t yet been discovered by the X-Men.

We know very little about the MCU’s Wolverine, but what we do know is that he’s in a rugged loner stage of life, getting into bar brawls, has no family in the X-Men, and already has his metal claws—not his pre-adamantium bone claws. This description of what the MCU Wolverine would look like fits perfectly with the Wolverine we saw Cavill portraying in Deadpool and Wolverine: a lone figure, temper as bad as ever, wearing a white tank top, smoking a cigar, working on his motorcycle—not in the X-Mansion garage, but in what looks like an abandoned warehouse—and telling Deadpool to get lost, just like in that classic Wolverine moment from X-Men: First Class.

This version of Wolverine that Cavill is playing is the exact type of Wolverine we’d expect for a brand-new beginning for this character and for a universe like the 616, where the X-Men don’t yet exist. This means we might get to see the creation and formation of the 616 X-Men. In order to do the character of Wolverine justice, he would need to have already existed on the timeline for at least a century or two, because Logan has a long journey before he arrives in Westchester and joins the X-Men. Hell, we might even get to see an MCU Wolverine origins movie.

The MCU’s Wolverine: Why Henry Cavill Could Be the Perfect Choice

Hear me out—a Wolverine movie where we learn through the eyes of this new Wolverine what a mutant even is. Keep in mind, in the first X-Men film, Wolverine was surprised to learn that there were others like him. Granted, this Wolverine would live in a universe where superhumans are common, but there’s got to be something different about being born with power, about being born different. Through the eyes of Wolverine, we could learn about the MCU’s version of mutants and the mutant gene, and how that will all be incorporated into a universe that, for the longest time, couldn’t even say the word mutant without being sued.

In an origins-type movie, we could see flashbacks where Logan served alongside Captain America and Bucky Barnes in World War II. Maybe he met the former Black Panther, King T’Chaka, on a special mission in Wakanda. Logan could be recruited by William Stryker to be on his task force, like we see in the comics and in the movies. We learn that Stryker is in pursuit of an indestructible metal like vibranium, and that’s why they travel to a place like Wakanda.

Not even vibranium meets the requirements of what he’s looking for. Years later, Stryker discovers adamantium on that giant Celestial sticking out of the ocean. He then brings Wolverine back into the fold for the Weapon X program, coats his skeleton and bone claws in adamantium, Wolverine rebels, something happens that causes him to lose his memory, and now he’s been wandering aimlessly, waiting to be found by the X-Men.

Look, I love Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Anytime I’m asked who my favorite superhero is, I give a very specific answer: Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. I’m so glad they brought him back for Deadpool and Wolverine, and I’m really glad we’re finally going to see him in a freaking Avengers movie. Yes, I believe wholeheartedly that he will be in Avengers: Secret Wars, maybe even in Doomsday. But after that, for the next saga of the MCU, I would assume that Jackman would finally step aside, at least for a decade or two, until he decides to come back for an Old Man Logan movie.

The perfect casting for his replacement would be someone like Cavill, who can bring the godly physique, the grit, and the heart, giving us a new take on the character while staying true to the key aspects of Wolverine that we know and love. Again, I know that this scene was probably just a super fun winking nod for the fans, similar to John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic in Multiverse of Madness, but I really do think that Henry, whose schedule is freed up now that he’s no longer playing Superman, could be a great addition to the MCU as Wolverine. His appearance in Deadpool and Wolverine makes me all the more certain that he’d be the right choice.

Wolverine’s Future in the MCU: Could Henry Cavill Lead the X-Men?

We also need to talk about the Secret Wars of it all. I’ve said before that I think Secret Wars is going to take place in the Void. In the comics, Secret Wars takes place on Battleworld, which is essentially a culmination of various worlds into one planet. Well, what is the Void if not a culmination of various worlds? If we see a scenario where the multiverse dies in Avengers: Doomsday, which is what I think will happen, they would all end up in the Void—it just makes sense.

We’ve long talked about the fact that come the end of Secret Wars, we’d probably see the MCU get a bit of an in-canon reboot. Like I just said, we’ll probably see the multiverse destroyed in Doomsday, and at the end of Secret Wars, we’ll see a new, fresh universe be created, just like in the comics.

In the 2015 Secret Wars comics, we see the 616 Mainline Marvel Comics universe get combined with the Marvel Ultimate Universe. We’ve long suspected that the Avengers: Secret Wars movie will have a similar ending that results in a semi-reboot of the universe. Perhaps in that semi-rebooted universe, we would get a universe where the X-Men and the Avengers now coexist, setting the stage for future MCU storylines.

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