It’s finally happening. For two decades, Marvel fans begged to see Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine suit up in his classic yellow and blue costume in the X-Men movies and then lamented never getting to see it when the actor retired the character in 2017… but everything is different now. Following a brief “character retirement,” Jackman is playing Logan again in Deadpool 3, and it’s been revealed that he will be rocking the hero’s comic book look. This development has stirred excitement from a great number of fans, but it has also stimulated reflection on Wolverine’s full cinematic history.
It’s the latter that has inspired the writing of this piece. It can be argued that the evolution of superhero movies has been mirrored in the macro evolution of Wolverine’s big screen look – starting from a time when the blockbusters were seemingly embarrassed by their source material to a time when the weird and wildness of comics has been embraced by Hollywood. The full story traces back to the year 2000, and the early approach can be summed up in a line that has been seen as notorious among fans (no, not, “You know what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning?”)
“Well, what would you prefer? Yellow spandex?”
In the third act of Bryan Singer’s X-Men, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine joins the titular team on a mission for the first time, and, wearing a black leather costume to match his fellow mutants, he sits in the cockpit of the X-Men Blackbird. Examining what he has on, he snidely remarks, “You actually go outside in these things?” James Marsden’s Cyclops, who is openly spiteful of the new member’s presence, offers the response, “Well, what would you prefer? Yellow spandex?”
This is not really a line delivered from Cyclops to Wolverine; when you really examine it, the retort doesn’t make any sense as a comeback. More accurately, it’s the movie directly addressing any comic book fan disappointed not to see their favorite characters appear as they were drawn by legends like Len Wein, John Romita Sr., Frank Miller, John Byrne, Paul Smith and Jim Lee. The perspective couldn’t have been made more clear: what works on the page is too ridiculous to be directly adapted into live-action, so we took the risk-free move by using the classic cool look of black leather.
To be fair, X-Men is recognized as an important title that helped usher in the modern age of comic book movies, and the genre would quickly grow after its release… but what unfortunately didn’t end up doing much changing was the big screen look for Wolverine.
Leather, T-Shirts, Tank Tops And Shirtless
Between 2000 and 2011, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine appeared in a total of five movies – X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: First Class – and while Jackman seemed to become most muscle-bound with each new installment, there wasn’t much development with his character’s look. Superheroes like Spider-Man, Daredevil, Iron Man and Captain America were all getting movies with main characters that looked like their comic book counterparts, but the X-Men franchise opted to stick with the aesthetic with which it started and found success.
The look of the X-Men’s leather suits changed in each installment of the original trilogy, but for Wolverine in particular, the costuming became… simpler. The character suits up when he’s operating with his teammates, but more often than not, he is featured wearing a T-shirt or a tank top or just plain shirtless. He is fully clothed for his entire part in X-Men: First Class, but he’s also only in the movie for about 25 seconds. In the years that would follow, X-Men: Days Of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse offered more of the same, but...
A Deleted Scene From The Wolverine Provides Fans With Hope For Wolverine’s Yellow Costume
After years of disappointment on the comic accurate costume front, the X-Men franchise finally provided fans with a glimmer of hope in fall 2013 with the home video release of The Wolverine. The film’s post-theatrical release not only delivered a superior, unrated version of the film called the Unleashed Extended Cut, but also a special deleted scene that features Yukio (Rila Fukushima) giving Hugh Jackman’s Logan a box that contains a mask and costume with a design taken straight from the comics.
The clip provoked confusion among fans who didn’t understand why the scene wasn’t included in the theatrical cut of The Wolverine, but more importantly, it inspired hope for the future. At the time, James Mangold and Hugh Jackman were both working out deals to make a sequel, and even though the scene had been deleted, many fingers were crossed that the tease could retroactively be included in the canon and be used as a jumping off point for the next adventure. Spoiler alert: that’s not the way that things ended up going down.
A Big Screen Wolverine Dream Is Seemingly Dashed With The Release Of Logan
In 2017, all hope to eventually see Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine wearing his iconic yellow costume seemed to dissipate like so much gossamer. With Logan writer/director James Mangold and co-writers Scott Frank and Michael Green taking cues from the beloved Old Man Logan series from the comics (a series that notably doesn’t feature the traditional yellow costume), all of the requests to get the actor in the long-requested outfit were ostensibly ignored. And with Jackman teasing for years that Logan was going to be his last adventure as Wolverine, the dream appeared dead.
To the credit of the filmmakers, the reasoning to not include the costume wasn’t akin to the embarrassment expressed by the first X-Men movie. James Mangold eventually revealed that a full version of the outfit wasn’t actually made for the deleted scene in The Wolverine, and in an interview with Screen Rant, he explained how he felt that there was an incongruity that that he could never get over that existed between the attitude of the character and the flamboyant design:
I can never get past, being a writer for these movies as well, that Logan is the least narcissistic of all the superheroes, any kind I can think of – Marvel, DC or anywhere else. What I mean by that is, who puts a special branded outfit on when they do good deeds? And why? The only reason you do it is so you can have some sort of trademarked claim and get credit for what you did. Nothing seems less Wolverine-like than the desire to put on a trademarked outfit, particularly canary yellow, and kind of prance about doing good deeds and have people go, 'Oh my God! It's The Wolverine!'
In the months after the release of Logan, Hugh Jackman lamented not being able to bring the costume to the big screen during his time as Wolverine, telling Collider,
There were a couple of things I couldn't work out how to do. Fans always say, 'When are we gonna see you in the blue and yellow spandex? We've gotta see that shot!' We tried a little bit in The Wolverine, it didn't happen – on that plane at the end he opens up a box and there's the suit, I think that ended up getting cut. So the suit was one thing but we just couldn't work out how to do it, so if anyone can work that out you go for it.
When Hugh Jackman confirmed his retirement as Wolverine and Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox, it was thought for a period that fans might finally get to see a comic-accurate version of the character played by a different actor introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe… but that was before Jackman confirmed that he was dusting off his claws for a role in Deadpool 3 in September 2022.
The First Still From Deadpool 3 Reveals Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine In The Yellow Suit… Albeit Without A Mask
When Hugh Jackman said he was calling it quits playing Wolverine, one of the biggest regrets among fans was that he never got proper time on screen with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool (I say “proper” to specifically discount what’s in X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Thankfully, Deadpool 3 is set to right that cinematic wrong – and just as the first Deadpool solo movie gave Reynolds the chance to wear a ripped-from-the-pages-of-Marvel-Comics costume, the second sequel is providing that chance for Jackman.
In July 2023, Ryan Reynolds posted the first official still from Deadpool 3 on his personal Instagram story, and there’s no complaint that any X-Men fan could make. Not only is the shade of yellow perfect, but the claw guards on the gloves are an excellent touch. Only making him look cooler is being next to Deadpool, who is wearing a costume that is a few shades lighter than what was featured in the first two movies.
Helping to complete the look is Hugh Jackman’s haircut and sideburns, but looking at his head, I have to wonder: will the movie be featuring Wolverine’s mask as well? At this point in time, after 23 years of waiting, asking that question can certainly be viewed as a form of looking a gift horse in the mouth, but I would be lying if I didn’t ponder how far the film will go to complete the character’s comic book appearance. There’s a big part of me that is thinking that this is just a tease of what’s to come, and that we’ll eventually get to first see the mask in either the trailers for the film or on the big screen.
Until we get to see Hugh Jackman in action wearing the yellow Wolverine costume, that brings us to the end of this timeline – but we’ll keep this article updated with new developments. Deadpool 3 is set to be released May 3, 2024, and you can stay up to date with all things Marvel via our Upcoming Marvel Movies and Upcoming Marvel TV features.
