Snikt! Ryan Reynolds' favourite frenemy Hugh Jackman to appear in Deadpool 3

There's been a shift in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Suddenly no one's fancasting the next Avengers film. 

They're stopped speculating over the details in the forthcoming Black Panther sequel.

Instead the fans are going gaga over Deadpool 3 — a film that is nearly two years away — all thanks to Ryan Reynolds' mutant marketing ability.  

With a single social media post, the Canadian actor who plays Deadpool changed the conversation. In a cheeky video posted Tuesday, he admitted he was having trouble coming up with an approach for the third Deadpool instalment, one that would herald the character's entry into the MCU. 

But then he admitted he had one idea, saying, "Hey Hugh, you want to play Wolverine one more time?" 

In the background, a barely seen Hugh Jackman mumbles, "Yeah, sure Ryan," while Whitney Houston belts out, "I will alway love Hugh" as thousands of Marvel vloggers rushed to share their excitement. 

Long-running fake feud

Reynolds is known for a lot of things but one is his long-running fake feud with Jackman. In reality the two actors who met on the set of X-Men: Origins are good friends, which was expressed with Reynolds teasing Jackman in a variety of social media posts.

When asked about working together again, Reynolds had always been open to the idea of bringing Wolverine, one of Marvel comics most popular characters, in the Deadpool franchise. But in previous interviews Jackman had demurred about the idea. Speaking in 2017 with Variety, he said, "the timing might be wrong." 

Certainly after the success of Logan, it seemed Jackman had closed the door on Wolverine for good. The 2017 film was a gritty neo-noir superhero tale with fewer costumes and extra grit that saw an older Wolverine going out on his own terms. The film by James Mangold is considered one of the best of its genre. But with Wolverine finally taking the long dirt nap, where will Deadpool 3 fit in? 

Once again, Reynolds predicted the outcry and provided answers (of a sort) with a second supplementary video 

Which of course doesn't explain a thing, but at least gives us a better view of Jackman. 

So where will Wolverine come from?  After the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the answer is anywhere and anytime. Thanks to the concept of the multiverse, Reynolds and Canadian director Shawn Levy can pluck just about any version of Wolverine from the timeline. It could be the fresh-faced Wolvie from the original X-Men film, or a version we've never seen.  

While Marvel president Kevin Fiege has promised Deadpool will keep his R-rating, the appearance of Wolverine opens a world of possibilities. Not the least of it introducing more mutants and X-Men into the MCU. (Before Disney bought Fox Studios, the X-Men and all the characters from those comic books existed in separate cinematic universes.)

Equally as enticing, it gives Deadpool the perfect character to face off against. Not only are both canonical Canadian (Deadpool was born in Regina!) but both have healing abilities which allow them to recover from just about any wound.  Let the comedy and chaos ensue. 

Deadpool 3 opens Sept. 6, 2024.