It's a great shame the Disney/Fox merger didn't happen a few years sooner because had that been the case, we might have seen Hugh Jackman's Wolverine join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The actor has made it clear that he's done with the clawed mutant after saying farewell to the role in 2017's Logan, but still managed to send the internet into a frenzy last month. Around the time all those rumours were doing the rounds about big cameos in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Jackman shared a piece of Wolverine fan-art and a photo of him and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige together.
The latter was actually from a few years ago, but that didn't stop fans from speculating wildly!
Talking to ComicBook.com to promote his new movie, Reminiscence, Jackman explained that he had no idea sharing those images would create such a great deal of excitement online.
"I literally was re-posting fan art and I do it quite a bit because I just love it. And I love the fans. And then I was off doing something and I came back and I'm like, 'Oh, I think I broke the Internet. No, no, no, no. Guys, sorry. Didn't mean that. I really didn't mean that. I'm really sorry,'" the X-Men star recalled.
"And I thought, 'No one's going to believe me.' But that was the case. And you guys are just too fast for me. Clearly way too fast and smarter than me. I just love the fans. And so, when cool things come my way, I'm going to pass it on."
Marvel Studios starting from scratch with the X-Men franchise does make sense, though it's still a little heartbreaking to think that Jackman's Wolverine will never share the screen with Deadpool or Spider-Man! Something could change, of course, but for now, it looks like the MCU will need a new Wolvie!
Click on the "Next" button below to check out 10 storylines we'd
like to see adapted in a Wolverine anthology series on Disney+!
10. Enemy Of The State
After being brainwashed by HYDRA, Logan was sent on a number of missions that involved him hunting down some of his fellow superheroes and even killing another member of the X-Men. When he does finally regain his senses, Wolverine heads off on a mission of revenge, using a Sentinel to take out a group of ninjas and taking on the ninja Gorgon in an epic, bloody battle.
Wolverine remains a popular character, but it won't be easy for Marvel Studios to get fans interested in the X-Men again. However, sending Wolverine through the Marvel Cinematic Universe and having him cross paths with everyone from Captain America to the Fantastic Four would make this an event series an unmissable experience for any moviegoer out there.
Of course, this could be adapted in a way to make it that Wolverine was under HYDRA's control around the same time as Bucky, exploring more of his time as The Winter Soldier in the process.
9. Mister X
Mister X is a wealthy businessman with a killing addiction who cuts a scar into his body for every life he takes (which admittedly isn't all that different to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey villain Victor Zsasz).
Wolverine encounters the villain (who soon realises that he too is a mutant with the ability to psychically predict the next movement of his opponents) when they come face to face in a tournament Logan is forced to take part in. After initially being overpowered by X, the clawed hero goes into a berserker rage to stop him once and for all.
However, their rivalry is far from over at this point and this is the first of many epic battles between the two. The Madripoor setting and tournament would make a great backdrop following its introduction in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and this event series could explore more of that location and the time Wolverine spent there in a past decade.
8. Savage Wolverine
Savage Wolverine was written and pencilled by Frank Cho. Stranded in the Savage Land (an iconic Marvel location which no studio has taken advantage of as of yet), Logan takes on dinosaurs and mutates, ultimately finding an unlikely ally in Shanna the She-Devil.
However, the twist here is that rather than having Wolverine and Shanna become romantically attached during their adventure, they actually annoy the crap out of each other (which would make for a fun dynamic on screen). It’s a fun and pulpy tale which would offer up a unique take on the well-known mutant, while also giving Marvel Studios some great material to work with.
A setting like this also means that Wolverine could slash his way through monstrous enemies, showcasing what a powerhouse he is when those claws are unleashed. This is another of those stories which could unfold in any time period and might serve as a nice way to introduce the Savage Land.
7. Alpha Flight
Bringing Wolverine into the MCU as a member of Alpha Flight is a no-brainer in some respects, and it could be revealed that he was part of that team ten or fifteen years ago (before the Avengers assembled).
Fox dropped the ball when it came to exploring Wolverine’s early years in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but his connection to this group is a concept with a lot of potential. Plus, just imagine if this Wolverine were to cross paths with The Hulk when Bruce Banner, unable to control the Jade Giant at this stage, makes his way to Canada to try and hide out in the wilderness.
Featuring an eclectic cast of characters including the likes of Guardian, Northstar, Aurora, Sasquatch, Shaman and Snowbird, including Alpha Flight in a Wolverine series would not only give us the chance to see the clawed X-Man teaming up with a very different team of superheroes but for us to also learn more about his past with the Canadian government after Weapon X.
6. Get Mystique
Mystique was a major part of pretty much every single one of Fox's X-Men movies, and fans have had quite enough of her at this stage. However, there are still ways the MCU could reinvent her.
With that in mind, why not give her a role in one Wolverine’s Disney+ adventures. In "Get Mystique," Logan hunts down the blue-skinned beauty after she betrays the X-Men, but as well as being a story that features the two mutants outmanoeuvring each other at every turn in the present, it also reveals some of their shared history in flashbacks to the 1920s.
In that, they went on a Bonnie-and-Clyde-esque robbery spree in Kansas, and that could be an enjoyable way to explore the history of both Wolverine and Mystique in an unexplored period.
5. Wolverine & Kitty Pryde
There were once plans at Fox for Kitty Pryde to get her own spinoff, but that fell by the wayside after the Disney merger. However, a series pairing the hero with her father figure/mentor, Wolverine, would give Marvel Studios a great opportunity to highlight one of the strongest female characters in comics.
After Kitty follows her actual father to Tokyo where she believes he is being harassed by the Yakuza, Wolverine tracks down the young mutant. However, he finds that Kitty has been brainwashed by one of the samurai’s who once trained him; Ogun. Delving into their relationship, a Disney+ series like this one based on this storyline would be a breath of fresh air.
Kitty, now known as Kate, is one of the best X-Men characters out there, and we're definitely optimistic that the hero is going to have a bright future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in future. Ogun's existence in this shared world has already been teased in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
4. New Mutants
No, we're not talking about the team of mutants who received the spotlight in the long-delayed movie which was finally released in theaters last summer. Instead, this one-shot story featured the Ultimate version of Wolverine tasked with perhaps his most difficult mission yet.
Starting off with a young boy who is baffled to discover that his family and neighbours are all missing, he heads off to school only to later be confronted by his girlfriend…however, she then disintegrates before him! Fleeing to a cave, Wolverine catches up with the boy and explains that his new mutant power is to kill any organic life form in his vicinity.
Wolverine can cope with it because of his healing factor but has no other choice than to kill the teenager. It's a dark and upsetting story that emphasises what being a mutant can mean, and while it would probably be best to make this a small part of a much larger arc, we'd love to see this on screen.
3. Patch
Madripoor, a fictional island located in Southeast Asia and a place we now know exists, was where Wolverine has called home on more than one occasion. Full of thugs and criminals, Logan donned an eye patch and went by the moniker of "Patch" for a time in order to remain undercover (as the X-Men were, at that time, attempting to keep their recent resurrection under wraps).
There are a number of stories that Marvel Studios could pick and choose from for a movie based on Wolverine’s time in Madripoor, but his hunt for the Muramasa Blade (a blade that all who wielded were possessed by its demonic essence, except for the one warrior destined to be it’s true master) could be a great start, especially as it's combined with his Kitty Pryde team-up.
The groundwork has been laid for this with that Princess Bar Easter Egg, and we're sure there's a way for this to even tie into the Power Broker and some of the character's Zemo mentioned.
2. Nitro
While the X-Men decided to keep out of the superhuman Civil War in the comic books, Wolverine still took it upon himself to track down the villain responsible for the explosion which killed sixty children at a nearby elementary school and around 600 people in the surrounding neighbourhood in Stamford, Connecticut: Nitro.
We've obviously had a "Civil War" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Nitro could instead be a mutant that Wolverine decides to hunt down for causing a similar disaster (one which perhaps takes out a young group of mutant superheroes rather than the New Warriors). Wolverine is always at his best hunting down an enemy, and this is a story with a great deal of potential.
It would be cool for Marvel Studios to perhaps tie this into a real-life event or even a fictional one in the MCU. Wolverine losing a loved one or something similar might help make this even more personal, and it could even be a young group of mutants who faced Nitro before they were ready that caused the disaster mentioned above.
1. Old Man Logan
"Old Man Logan" is rightfully considered one of the greatest Wolverine stories of all-time, and bringing a faithful adaptation of Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s celebrated arc to the small screen is something that could only be done by Marvel Studios in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Characters like the Hulk, Venom (he's owned by Sony Pictures, so that probably wouldn't happen), Hawkeye and the Red Skull all play pivotal roles in this story, and without them, we’d be left with, well, Logan. That was still very good, of course, but it wasn't what many fans were hoping for from Hugh Jackman's final appearance as Wolverine.
How would this work in the MCU? Well, with time-travel and alternate realities becoming commonplace, heading into the far-flung future of this shared world surely won't be off the table, and could be the final one of these anthology series to tease where Wolverine's story eventually ends.