Is Kevin Feige trying to use Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine return to prepare you for an Iron Man comeback? Maybe, but it sounds like a bad idea

Marvel has managed to bring back Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and Kevin Feige thinks it’s a “great sign” that it can be done with other characters too.

Spoilers ahead for Deadpool & Wolverine (unless you’ve seen the film’s final trailer, which gave away a bit too much).

A big thing that both Jackman and his co-star Ryan Reynolds wanted to make clear pretty clear after the announcement of Deadpool & Wolverine, is that Logan, Jackman’s previous final performance as the character, would not be touched. They clearly knew that fans would be incredibly upset if Logan was ruined in any way, the upcoming threequel would not be received well at all. The solution to that? Have Deadpool & Wolverine’s version of the character be from another universe – no, not Fox’s X-Men films, a separate universe from that entirely. Or at least, it looks that way anyway judging from the final trailer.

Whether that ends up working for you or not, you’ll have to wait and see, but in the eyes of Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, it was a strong way to bring the character back. In an interview Discussing Film, Feige spoke of how the “key” to bringing back characters in a satisfying way is to honour their legacy, and would be important if Marvel were to ever attempt to bring back Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark/ Iron Man, or Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers/ Captain America.

“That’s the key, right? How do you do it in a way that maintains what has come before, and in a great way?” Feige said. “And we’ve been spending, you know, the last two-plus years figuring that out for Wolverine. So, what’s to come? We’ll see. We’re just proud that we, I think, have figured it out for Wolverine. I think Hugh’s appearance and starring role in [Deadpool & Wolverine] is a great sign that it can be done – if great care is taken.”

Personally, as much as comics kill off and bring back characters pretty regularly, it is a bit of a harder thing to do in movies, particularly when a lot of cinemagoers won’t be used to that kind of storytelling. Steve Rogers’ and Tony Stark’s stories were wrapped up pretty conclusively too, so it would just make it feel like a marketing gimmick, even if a lot of work was done to narratively justify it.

It won’t be long until you can see whether Deadpool & Wolverine itself has managed to narratively justify bringing Jackman back, as it’s out in cinemas this Friday, July 26.