Deadpool & Wolverine‘s first-look trailer is truly a masterclass in understatement, which is a phrase I never thought I’d use in conjunction with Ryan Reynolds’ vigilante king of vulgarity but there you go. Despite the name in the title, the trailer stopped short of giving away too much of Hugh Jackman’s eagerly anticipated return as Logan, with only the teaser’s final shots depicting him in action. And even then you can only make him out if you slow down the playback speed.
To be accurate, a man who strongly resembles Jackman’s Wolverine also appears earlier in the trailer — Deadpool is depicted approaching a poker table in some kind of discreet club at which a man in a snappy white suit with pointy black hair is sitting. It’s an unfamiliar environment and fashion sense for the Adamantium X-Man but that’s gotta be him, right? Well, not necessarily.
The thinking goes that this might actually be our first peak at the MCU’s Wolverine — as in the Wolverine of Earth-616 – and not the Jackman variant who’ll presumably hail from the Fox-verse. And fans are convinced they know who’s portraying Logan-616. Could it really be… Daniel Radcliffe?
First of all, let’s be clear: that’s not necessarily Wolverine in the above image, it’s Patch. In the comics, Wolverine dons a disguise as a criminal known as Patch when infiltrating the hive of scum and villainy that is Madripoor, in order to investigate supervillains at work on the island. Given that Madripoor was just introduced into the MCU in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, fans are confident that means this particular Wolverine comes from 616.
On closer inspection, folks also believe those white suited arms are not quite as bulky as Jackman’s own and are closer to the physique of long-term Wolverine favorite Radcliffe.
But, hold up, it’s not just empty fan speculation fueling the Radcliffe rumors. Insider Daniel Richtman has claimed that the former Boy Who Lived has joined Deadpool 3 behind the scenes in a “secret role.” It would be entirely in keeping with this franchise if it brought in Radcliffe for a gag scene as Wolverine, in response to the many times over the years when the actor has had to tell interviewers “I’m not Wolverine, OK?!”
All in all, fans may be jumping the gun slightly in attempting to positively identify Patch Wolverine from just the back of his head and the size of his biceps. And yet it’s not entirely out of the question that when the MCU’s incarnation of Logan does show — in DP3, coming this July 25, or otherwise — we’ll all be shouting “Holy cricket, you’re Harry Potter!”
