Fans have been waiting for this for 24 years! Why has Wolverine never worn the famous yellow jumpsuit before?

In July 2023, the first photo of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine was unveiled. And to everyone’s surprise, the mutant is wearing a yellow jumpsuit. A historic photo since it is the first time in 23 years that Logan has worn on the big screen the yellow costume that the superhero wears in the first comics and the animated series in the 1990s.

An “eye-catching” outfit?

Although Hugh Jackman had never worn the suit on screen, several allusions to it had been made in the past. In the first film of the X-Men saga (2000), Logan complains about the black suit imposed on mutants and Cyclops retorts “Would you have preferred a yellow spandex jumpsuit?“

The suit already appeared in a deleted scene from Wolverine: The Immortal Fight in 2013. In the film by James Mangold, Yukio (Rila Fukushima) finds Logan on the plane and gives him a suitcase containing the suit and the yellow helmet. A scene to discover below.

In 2017, James Mangold, Wolverine and Logan director told the site ScreenRant that he found this outfit too “flashy”. “II kind of feel like if we ever put Hugh in that costume, people wouldn’t be happy. Basically, it’s something that exists on the pages and I’m not sure it could exist anywhere else.” he specified.

Yet when the first photo of the clawed mutant in the costume was released, early fan reviews were overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

In Deadpool & Wolverine, after failing to join the Avengers team, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) goes from one small job to another without really finding his way. Until the day when a high-ranking member of the Anachronistic Variation Tribunal offers him a mission worthy of him… on the condition that he sees his world and everyone he loves destroyed. Categorically refusing, Wade puts on the Deadpool costume again and tries to convince Wolverine to help him save his universe… The mercenary therefore sets out in search of Wolverine and manages to convince the variant in the yellow suit to join him.

Kevin Feige wanted the yellow jumpsuit!

Variety reports that the idea to include the mustard yellow jumpsuit came from Kevin Feige. During a Q&A session between director and writer Shawn Levy and Marvel Studios President, the filmmaker said: “When we told Kevin that Hugh was in the movie, the first thing I remember is him saying, ‘Okay, but he finally wears the yellow suit.’ And we immediately said yes!”

It’s like showing Superman without his costume!

Kevin Feige clarifies that for him, not showing Wolverine in his most recognizable outfit is like not showing Superman without his famous costume.

Already an associate producer on the first X-Men film in 2000, Feige recalls that at the time “Studio executives wouldn’t allow stars near anything as “bright and stupid” as fluorescent Spandex, opting instead for black leather.”

Matrix as an inspiration for X-Men!

The idea of ​​mutants wearing black suits was actually born after the success of The Matrix. During an interview with the ComicBook.com reporter Brandon DavisKevin Feige said: “The executives knew that The Matrix had been a big hit and since the actors were wearing black leather, they said, “Put them in black leather!”

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The president of the Maison des Idées then praised Hugh Jackman’s “masterful” performance over the years. Despite the absence of the famous costume, spectators have become attached to the character who remains one of the public’s favorite heroes.This proves that for the audience the character and its interpreter are more important than the costume” he concludes.

In video interview given to Varietythe trio Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman precisely evoke the combination.

Reynolds begins: “We talked about the costume from the beginning because it was a no-brainer. You can’t do this character without him wearing a costume. That was a no-brainer. But the costume design, by costume designer Russ Shinkle and his company Film Illusions, is engineering, it’s a level of design that’s an art.”

Hugh Jackman’s take on the yellow suit

Hugh Jackman adds: “When we started in 1999 we were told, “We can’t have technicolor,” so everyone wore black leather suits. And part of my brain, I think, was kind of institutionalized into thinking that’s what it was.

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And then I watched the Marvel movies and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that looks really cool.’ And we decided that I would wear that suit. As soon as I put it on, I was like, ‘How could we never do that?’ It looked so good, it felt so good to me. I was like, ‘That’s him.’ There are different sides to Wolverine that we haven’t seen in theaters yet. That was exciting to me.”

Adults sobbed on set.

And the combination had its little effect since the executive producer of the film, Wendy Jacobson, told the site IGN that Jackman’s first costume test created a very “special” moment on set.

She explains : “We were doing the first camera tests, before we started shooting. Seeing Ryan and Hugh in costume together was just mind-blowing, but when Hugh showed up in his yellow and blue suit, it was something else. I mean… grown men were sobbing on set… So we knew it was going to be a very special event.L.”

Hugh Jackman also returns to this precise moment to the microphone of our Brazilian colleagues from the site AdoroCinema : “We walked onto the set. Ryan was in his Deadpool suit, I was in mine. You could hear a pin drop. It was so quiet. It was perfect. It’s so crazy. I did this for 25 years before but now I can’t imagine not wearing it to play the character.”

In theaters since Wednesday July 24, Deadpool & Wolverine marks the arrival of mutants and the X-Force in the Marvel universe.