Hugh Jackman’s comeback as Wolverine in Deadpool 3 came as a complete shock when Ryan Reynolds announced it in a video earlier this week. Having allowed their humorous on-screen chemistry to bleed over onto social media, Reynolds and Jackman collaborated on a follow-up video in which they sought to answer a few pressing issues, the most pressing of which was how they were going to bring Wolverine back from the grave. Oscar-nominated actor Hugh Jackman played Wolverine for the first time in 2000, and 17 years later, the character was killed off in the film Logan.
Both Jackman and Reynolds, in the video, reassured audiences that Logan does not share a continuity with the events of Deadpool 3, which serves as their MCU premiere. A moment before they were going to spill the beans, the music in the background started playing louder than before, drowning out their words. Now that video creator Jomboy has attempted lip-reading what Jackman and Reynolds said about Deadpool 3, we learn that they were careful not to give anything away. At the outset of his film, Jomboy admits, “I don’t believe I got everything exactly, but I got the spirit of it pretty nicely.”
Jomboy, who has done these thousands of times, claims that Reynolds and Jackman used the most general phrases possible to depict action sequences. In the video, Reynolds is heard saying, “I’m following him all over the place, and we’re going through everything, and all these various areas…” while Jackman interrupts, “And we’re going to have this tremendous, massive, gigantic explosion.” They also act out sword fighting and adamantium clawing. But there is one throwaway comment made by Jackman at the conclusion of the video that deserves attention. It’s possible that this is the first time in a long time that we witness Wolverine at his peak performance when he states, “We’re in our prime; it’s true, our prime.”
With the exception that Jackman wasn’t babbling and Jomboy’s lip-reading was spot-on. Mike Flanagan, director of the Netflix limited series Midnight Mass, recently admitted on Twitter that he spoiled the entire show for “everyone in the room” by narrating major plot points while recording the promotional video, saying, “I coulda just read a grocery list, don’t know why I went all in on authenticity for this.” In the original video in which Reynolds confirmed Jackman’s comeback, he explained that he had laboured for a long time to create a version of Deadpool 3 worthy of inclusion in the MCU. Yet he’d fallen short. Still, he did come up with one good suggestion. Reynolds turned to Jackman at that very moment and said, “Hey, Hugh, want to play Wolverine one more time? Without raising an eyebrow, Jackman said, “Yeah, fine, Ryan.”
In the past, Shawn Levy’s name has been mentioned as Deadpool 3’s director. The director has previously collaborated with Reynolds on Free Guy and The Adam Project, as well as Hugh Jackman on the underappreciated Real Steel. Both Deadpool movies directed by Tim Miller and David Leitch were unexpectedly successful at the box office, with the former earning over $782 million worldwide and the latter $785 million. Deadpool’s insignia with three claw marks scraped across it was the final image in Reynolds’ original video, which also revealed the film’s release date of September 6, 2024.