UPDATE 8/16: Deadline is reading the beam-in differently for the mutant side of things, taking it as a sign Jackman isn’t coming back as Wolverine for the X-Men reboot. Original article follows.
Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds have now posted the Avengers: Doomsday video from Marvel’s D23 panel to their own accounts, and the captions do the heavy lifting.
“If this looks like I’m recording this video against my will. It’s because I AM,” Jackman wrote alongside the clip on Instagram and X.
Reynolds’ version: “If this feels like a hostage video, it’s because it’s a hostage video.”
The video opened the Doomsday portion of Marvel’s presentation in Anaheim Friday night, with Jackman pitching Kevin Feige on a spot in the movie while Reynolds’ Deadpool heckled from off screen.
Until now the clip had been making the rounds through press accounts and phone footage from the room. Now the two of them have put it out themselves.
In the full clip, Jackman tells Feige he “just wanted to check in totally unprompted” and asks whether Marvel might “need some help rounding out the cast,” adding that he would love to join and might be able to convince Ryan to appear.
Deadpool’s contribution is the crack that Marvel already has twenty-some people in this thing, so why would they need the two of them, plus a demand, per reports out of the room, that Jackman follow the f***ing script.
Fans Are Calling It Confirmation
The reaction is not subtle. Jackman’s post on IG passed 380,000 likes in roughly three hours, and Reynolds’ cleared 478,000 in four, with comments limited on his end.
The top comment on Jackman’s post, north of 13,000 likes, sums up the mood: after this and Ryan’s appearance at Comic-Con, it would be hilarious if they aren’t in it.
Others skipped the “if” entirely.
“Both Wolverine and Deadpool will definitely be in Avengers: Doomsday now,” reads one reply. Over on Reynolds’ post: “So are y’all in Doomsday? I don’t want to get my hopes up.”
Another fan offered that “30 is a good round number,” a nod to Deadpool’s own twenty-some-people line.
Fans also caught the same thing we flagged last night. “Not the deadpool & spider-man teasing,” one commenter wrote about Deadpool’s “Deadpool & Spider-Man” joke in the video.
That one keeps landing harder with Tom Holland’s Brand New Day past $1.6 billion worldwide and another Deadpool movie already confirmed by Reynolds.
Marvel Still Hasn’t Said It
Marvel.com’s own D23 recap covered the video, quoted Jackman’s pitch, and then ran the full Doomsday cast list without Jackman or Reynolds on it. That’s not an oversight.
Various sites are now reporting the pair as officially joining the movie.
Our read hasn’t changed since last night: Marvel has not said the words, and the matching “hostage” captions are the two of them keeping the gag alive, not breaking it.
However, it’s worth noting that it’s likely Marvel is forking out the dough for the marketing of the video.
It’s also the same gag Reynolds has been running for four years.
His September 2022 video announcing Jackman for Deadpool 3 opened with an apology for missing that year’s D23. Now they’ve crashed D23 by video, with Jackman playing the hostage instead of the guy casually walking up the stairs.
Add Reynolds walking into Hall H three weeks ago in the gray X-Force suit while Robert Downey Jr. insisted the movie was locked, and this is a rollout with the punchline still to come.
Half the Fox-era X-Men roster from Patrick Stewart to Ian McKellen is already in Doomsday, the reboot cast is set for 2028, and the one name missing from the mutant column happens to be the guy in the hostage video.
Rumors do offer Wolverine won’t be a part of the MCU’s X-Men reboot at launch, which does fit with the comics, as Wolverine appeared and joined the X-Men years later.
Avengers: Doomsday opens December 18. The full Marvel D23 panel is here, and everything else on the movie is over at the Avengers: Doomsday hub.
