Tying up Loose Ends
Before speculating on how Wolverine may play into the threequel, it’s important to remember where we last left Wade Wilson. The character was in an interesting position, forming a new team and reuniting with the love of his life. There are plenty of plot threads that Deadpool 3 is going to have to face head-on if it is to act as a sequel, rather than a soft reboot.
Deadpool actually stole Cable’s time travelling device at the end of the last movie, allowing him to rescue his partner Vanessa Carlysle from her grim fate. This could have re-written the timeline in a number of ways, but the post-credits sequence also saw Wade Wilson continuing to jump across the stream, throwing reality into further chaos. With the Multiverse at the center of the current phase of the MCU, it seems Deadpool 2 created the perfect pathway towards combining those narrative concepts.
Not only was Deadpool reunited with Vanessa, he had also become a part of X-Force, a group of super powered individuals with a moral compass as gray as the hitman’s. Domino, Firefist, and Cable were joined by X-Men members Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio, to round out the unit. Deadpool was almost on the path to redemption, demonstrating a few more heroic characteristics that indicated the protagonist was continuing to evolve. Any sequel would have to take into account those moving stories (especially with Cable stuck in the present day) while paying off any of that significant development. But by introducing Wolverine into the equation, an interesting dynamic may arise that sees Deadpool having to pick a side between them.
Bringing Back Wolverine
While the third film may continue to play upon the themes and arcs of the previous instalments, it has also promised to reunite Wade Wilson and Logan on screen. Their history is a complex one, with Wolverine getting referenced in both Deadpool films, while the Merc without a Mouth made his debut in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The last time audiences saw Logan, he was finally laid to rest after his healing factor finally gave up in the dystopian future depicted in Logan inspired by the Old Man Logan comic book. However, the story did take place in 2029, after Deadpool 3.
Plus, there are other timelines out there where Wolverine is very much alive. The way reality was reset in X-Men: Days of Future Past is one such example of a timeline that could see Logan living out his best days. Wolverine’s own character arc could get a little complex, as audiences won’t exactly know what he has previously experienced. But there’s surely a way for Deadpool to catch Wolvie up on his adventures from multiple timelines, much in the same way the trickster god was reminded of his possible pasts in Loki.
Boarding the MCU
There are plenty of ways Wolverine and Deadpool may come to exist in the same timeline. While we’ve touched on the different realities Wolverine still exists in, how he could travel between them is currently a mystery. Of course, there’s always the slim possibility that the Logan seen in Deadpool 3 could already be native to the timeline that Wade Wilson operates in. After all, audiences have also seen an iteration of the X-Men from the First Class universe.