The Hilarious Wolverine Variant That Didn't Make The Cut In Deadpool & Wolverine

/Film previously reported that, on the set of Shawn Levy's new superhero flick "Deadpool & Wolverine," grown men were breaking down crying on set. It seems that nine previous films to star Hugh Jackman as the X-Man Wolverine weren't enough to reach them on the level of "D&W," as Wolverine was never seen wearing the bright yellow-and-blue costume he typically wore in the pages of Marvel Comics. Evidently, seeing Jackman in a well-designed Wolverine outfit made some men so wistful of their childhood comics-reading days, that they wept openly. On a certain level, superheroes really are little more than their costumes. Superman, for instance, can't trade his cape for khakis.

An ironic thing about Wolverine's costume, however, is that it doesn't look anything like a wolverine. Wolverines are furry little critters, weighing about 40 pounds, and known for how uncharacteristically strong they are for their size. They also have visible, wicked claws, perhaps reflected in Marvel Wolverine's metal blades that eject from his knuckles. Like the animal, Marvel Wolverine is vicious, sometimes losing control, and clawing the dickens out of opponents. Wolverines, however, are not blue and yellow, but dark brown and black. They also don't have large facial "wings" like Marvel Wolverine wears on his hood. The facial wings are a mere visual flourish invented by comic book artists and serve no function. 

Indeed, Wolverine looks so little like a wolverine, a fellow X-Man will rarely draw a parallel between the man and the animal. In the Wolverine movies, no wolverines actually appear, and the character only seems to have picked up the nickname as a cage fighter.

On the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, however, Levy said he almost rectified that. There was, briefly, a scene with a Wolverine variant that was actually a wolverine.

"Deadpool & Wolverine" is, as of this writing, one of the highest-grossing films of the year, but I shall still pause to explain the phrase "Wolverine variants." "Deadpool & Wolverine" is a multidimensional story, and features dozens of characters culled from alternate dimensions. Early in the film, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) steals a dimension-hopping widget and begins looking for an alternate version of Wolverine to replace the dead one from his home dimension. In an amusing montage, Deadpool meets multiple versions of Wolverine, each one with a different haircut, a different outfit, or posed in a way that matches an old "X-Men" comic book cover. One of them is played by Henry Cavill. It's a cute little basket of Easter eggs for X-Men obsessives. Deadpool eventually settles on the yellow-suit Wolverine and returns home with him. 

On "Happy Sad Confused," Levy said that he wanted the montage to also feature a real wolverine. He doesn't specify if the wolverine would be wearing a costume, or if it would merely be a furry little dog monster, but he felt that the visual gag would have been hilarious. His only issue was that he thought of the gag too late into production to insert it; it was too late to wrangle a real-life wolverine or construct one out of CGI. The director said: 

"Number ... seven was an actual wolverine. We really wanted an actual wolverine, the animal, and he would maul Deadpool. But we came up with that idea too late to do a convincing digital wolverine, so that one's in my back pocket should I need one for any sequels." 

Too bad. It would have been funny. I suppose the movie doesn't suffer for it, however, given the dozens of other Marvel Easter eggs placed within.