Hugh Jackman Wolverine Mask in Deadpool 3 Finally Revealed?

To appreciate the significance of seeing Hugh Jackman rocking Wolverine’s original comic book colors and mask (more or less), it’s important to remember his history of, frankly, disappointing film costumes. In the first X-Men movie, he wore a black leather outfit with subtle tiger stripes.

It might have seemed like a sensible aesthetic for audiences that fell in love with the leather-clad heroes of The Matrix a year before, but in retrospect, the Wolverine of this movie looked more like he was on his way to a kinky date than a climactic battle with Magneto.

Hugh Jackman was still sporting the black leather in the next two films, though the exact design of Wolverine’s costume had some subtle changes. However, perhaps realizing that the all-leather look was as goofy in its own right as the original suit from the comics, the character began appearing in his civilian clothing more and more. It became very common just to see Wolverine wearing a leather jacket, which not only looked better than the leather but was very true to his more casual comic portrayals.

We’ve gotten variations of Hugh Jackman wearing jackets as Wolverine, including the groovy 70’s brown jacket in Days of Future Past. We also get Wolverine looking dashing (if a little sad) as a ride-share driver in Logan. Speaking of Logan, we see him sporting very casual clothes (like an open button-up over a bloody tank top) for most of the movie, giving him the appropriately bad aesthetic of an aging dad.

Of course, one reason some fans were sad to see Hugh Jackman’s various Wolverine looks in these films is that they preferred seeing the character in as little clothing as possible. As the actor became the desirable centerpiece of the franchise, he began wearing fewer and fewer clothes.

The Wolverine, for example, showcased the actor’s impressive bod by having him run around topless. In the mostly forgettable X-Men: Apocalypse, the character is also missing most of his clothes, but that’s mostly an excuse to show off the Weapon X design that was adapted from the comics.

Interestingly, we were teased a comic-accurate suit for Hugh Jackman in the post-credits scene for The Wolverine, which showed a briefcase containing the brown suit that the character spent so much time wearing in the original comics. Unfortunately, we never saw Jackman don this costume, leading many fans to think we would forever be denied a comic-accurate Wolverine onscreen. Now, comic nerds everywhere are rejoicing because Deadpool 3 is bringing the character’s design back to its roots.

By now, everyone has seen the teaser image for Deadpool 3 in which Hugh Jackman is walking alongside the titular Merc With a Mouth. His Wolverine costume was inspired by the character’s earliest appearances, though it sports some of the more modern flourishes that take inspiration from Joss Whedon’s comic Astonishing X-Men.

Because Jackman isn’t wearing a mask in this image, many fans worried that we either would get no mask at all or that it would look awful. Fortunately, the preview image of the mask above proves that, if nothing else, Deadpool 3 will make Wolverine look more like his comic self than ever before.