In the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer, Paradox, Deadpool’s assigned TVA agent, talked about how a Wolverine that he was referring to let down his entire world, as the camera focuses on Wolverine, in costume, lying on the floor of the TVA, possibly incapacitated. A theory has emerged pointing towards how Wolverine could have let down his world, and it ties in directly with a certain comic book run that has been widely influential for the Wolverine of the Fox-verse.
Old Man Logan has been a widely influential comic for Wolverine as a character, so much so that a version of this Logan has made his way into Earth 616, and remains an integral part of the Snikt Family (along with Daken, Laura, and Gabby).
The story has a significant amount of influence on 2013’s The Wolverine, and 2017’s Logan. The story’s inciting incident has a different antagonist than the rest of it, and it is this character who could have been responsible for a similar tragedy for Logan that we see in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Mysterio might be responsible for Wolverine letting down his world
In Old Man Logan, it was revealed that Logan had been tricked into massacring the mutants at Xavier’s Institute by Mysterio. A theory suggests that Mysterio could have similarly led Logan to commit some grave crime, the kind that doomed all the heroes of his world. Mysterio’s deceit induced Logan to enter a self-imposed exile, swearing off the use of his claws forever.
The Wolverine that we see in Deadpool & Wolverine might be long-suffering like other counterparts, and it remains a mystery how Wolverine would cross paths with Deadpool. While the latter is strongly implied to be working with the TVA, the trailer suggests that Deadpool will seek out Logan for some mission. There might be a twist in the story where Deadpool decides to go against the TVA and enlists Logan to help him, but that is still largely speculatory rather than a concrete prediction based on what we have learned so far.
There are multiple theories as to what Wolverine would have done to let his world down
The X-Men have had many pivotal moments in their cinematic history, a lot of which have hinged on Wolverine. From the slaying of a Pheonix Force endowed Jean Grey in X-Men: The Last Stand, to alter the time stream such that the Senitnels never take off as they did in X-Men: Days of Future Past, all have been important events that have defined what happened in the X-Men universe.
While we know that this Wolverine is not the same one that we see in Fox’s X-Men universe, it is possible that the character dealt with similar narrative bets in his universe, which is the basis of a slew of theories about what this version of Wolverine had done wrong. One theory suggests that this Wolverine was unable to slay Jean Grey as he did at the end of X-Men: The Last Stand, while another points towards a time-displaced Logan in Days of Future Past being unable to do anything to change the devasted future that haunted mutant-kind.
