Marvel StudiosDeadpool (Ryan Reynolds) was maybe being facetious when he claimed that Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine would be around “till he’s 90,” but a new X-Men rumor could turn a joke into reality.Marvel Studios brought Jackman back for one last ride in Deadpool & Wolverine in 2021, which already felt gratuitous given his anti-hero’s noble end in Logan. It helped that Deadpool mocked the actor’s return, cheekily poking at Marvel and Disney’s insatiable thirst for nostalgia. That Deadpool & Wolverine was positioned as the final final goodbye to the latter — and to all the characters in Fox’s X-Men universe — also made Jackman’s return feel a little less shameless. After all, Marvel is gearing up for an X-Men reboot; studio president Kevin Feige has shared plenty about the upcoming overhaul, which will come after Avengers: Secret Wars and reset Marvel’s multiverse.Ideally, Feige will choose a new actor to replace the 57-year-old Jackman, ushering in “a new age of mutants” with a younger Wolverine. But according to industry leaker Daniel Richtman, it’s possible we still haven’t seen the last of the Australian actor.Jackman’s days as Wolverine somehow aren’t over yet. | Marvel StudiosPer Richtman, the sun hasn’t fully set on Jackman’s Wolverine. The actor is already rumored to appear in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, joining erstwhile X-Men co-stars like Patrick Stewart and Rebecca Romijn. But Richtman claims that there’ll be yet more in store for Jackman, even after Secret Wars reboots the X-Men. “I hear the idea is to have Hugh Jackman in more Marvel projects even after [Secret] Wars,” Richtman recently shared. He didn’t reveal what Marvel might have in mind for the actor, or how that will affect the upcoming X-Men reboot. But either way, if Richtman’s intel is accurate, then Marvel is failing to learn a big lesson from its own (seemingly) self-aware satire.Marvel is simply way too reliant on Wolverine, although it’s not hard to see why, as Jackman took an ensemble character and turned him into the focal point of every X-Men movie. Wolverine is the only X-Men character to get his own spin-off trilogy, and Wolverine remains the face of the X-Men even as Marvel folds the Fox films into its multiverse. That makes some sense: Jackman has always been compelling in the role, and he lost none of his magic in Deadpool & Wolverine. But the 2024 film also overplays its hand with the character, outsizing his importance to the multiverse and doubling down on his role in the new MCU.It’s time to say goodbye to Wolverine... for real, this time. | Marvel StudiosThe time to let go of Jackman’s Wolverine has come and gone, but Marvel is both oblivious and bafflingly self-aware of its reliance on actor and character. Deadpool literally dredges up Wolverine’s corpse and uses his adamantium bones for his own lewd devices. He breaks the fourth wall to comment on Jackman’s auto-renewing contract with Marvel. But subtextually, Wolverine is way more important to this story than Deadpool. Not only is he basically the savior of Deadpool’s universe, but he’s a crutch on which the film’s multiversal adventure props itself.Deadpool & Wolverine didn’t fully close the door on the character, leading most to believe that he’ll pop up in the new Avengers movies. Despite Richtman’s latest Marvel update, though, the hope is that Secret Wars will do what Deadpool & Wolverine couldn’t, and definitively say goodbye. Marvel needs to forge its own take on the X-Men, and it can’t do that with Jackman always waiting in the wings.