Marvel's eight and a half hour Wolverine breathing clip may hint at bigger plans for Hugh Jackman

Marvel posted an eight and a half hour Wolverine clip called Wolverine Breathing Exercise, and I think it could be telling us something about Wolverine's role in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. It might even connect to Robert Downey Jr.'s return as Doctor Doom and Tobey Maguire's return as Spider-Man. Am I reaching? Probably. But like Wolverine, I'm short, and reaching is nothing new to me.

Wolverine Breathing Exercise followed a Doomsday cast reveal that left Hugh Jackman out

Not long before the clip appeared, Marvel had us sit through five hours of chairs as it slowly revealed the cast for Avengers: Doomsday. A huge part of that reveal was the inclusion of what Kevin Feige called the original X-Men. We got Professor X, Magneto, Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Mystique and Beast, all played by the actors who played them in the early 2000s Fox era X-Men films.

A huge name was missing from that lineup, though: Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, and Deadpool as well. Channing Tatum was included, which made the absence of Wolverine and Deadpool all the more glaring.

So when I saw that thumbnail with Wolverine and Marvel on it, I assumed we were getting more cast announcements. We weren't. It's Wolverine standing there, breathing. But there's a brief moment in the clip that hides a fun Easter egg.

The pose points back to Frank Miller's first Wolverine comic cover

That moment references the very first Wolverine comic cover by Frank Miller. It's a pose Hugh Jackman has struck before, in promotions for the original X-Men movie.

That comic features Wolverine hunting a grizzly bear that had been shot with a poison arrow. The arrow drove the bear insane, and it killed around 15 people. It's also the comic where Wolverine makes a trip to Japan.

That comic already shaped The Wolverine, Jackman's second chance at a solo film

The bear story was later adapted in The Wolverine, which also sends Logan to Japan. The Wolverine was technically a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I'd say it was more of a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand, but I guess it's part of a weird Wolverine trilogy made up of Origins, The Wolverine and Logan.

After the poor reception of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Hugh Jackman's overall disappointment with the film, and Ryan Reynolds' disappointment with how Deadpool was handled, we ended up getting The Wolverine. It was viewed as its own thing, a second chance at a solo Wolverine movie, and one meant to be taken as a Wolverine one type of film. So it was fitting that they adapted Wolverine's first comic for it.

My theory: another Wolverine and Deadpool movie between Doomsday and Secret Wars

With that pose showing up in the clip, I wondered if the little smile and finger motion could be a hint that Marvel has plans for another Wolverine solo movie. Perhaps it lands between Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, set in Deadpool's universe after the events of Deadpool & Wolverine. Maybe we'd see what the pair are up to during the events of Doomsday. You could call it Wolverine and Deadpool, and maybe have Wade complain about not getting top billing this time.

That movie could end with a scene that connects to the climax of Avengers: Doomsday. It would serve as a sequel to Deadpool & Wolverine, but it would also set up Deadpool and Wolverine to join the fight against Doctor Doom in Secret Wars, and show us how their reality gets roped into this multiversal war.

Think of how Ant-Man wasn't in Avengers: Infinity War. Ant-Man and the Wasp came out after Infinity War but takes place mostly before it, and in its post credits scene we see the Thanos snap and how Ant-Man gets set up for his role in Avengers: Endgame. Something similar could happen here. Perhaps at the end of another Deadpool and Wolverine movie we see an incursion. Maybe Doctor Doom arrives, or maybe the entire multiverse collapses and Deadpool and Wolverine get thrown back into the void, which I think will be Battleworld.

Why I think the Doomsday X-Men come from Deadpool's universe

Personally, I think the X-Men we're getting in Avengers: Doomsday are from Deadpool's universe. We know Deadpool's universe is supposed to be the original Fox X-Men universe, a version of it that has been rewritten over and over because those films kept messing with time travel and rewriting their own timeline.

And yes, despite Hulk's speech in Endgame about how traveling to the past works, rewriting the timeline might be how time travel works in the X-Men universe.

I also think that when Monica Rambeau wakes up in the X-Mansion in the post credits scene of The Marvels, after going to a different universe, that's Deadpool's universe. And I think that means we're almost certainly going to see Deadpool and Wolverine in Avengers: Doomsday.

It's probably a marketing gimmick, but Marvel hasn't forgotten Hugh

So if this wasn't a tease for a solo Wolverine movie or a Deadpool & Wolverine sequel, and it wasn't confirmation that Wolverine is in Doomsday, what was it? I think it's probably a little marketing gimmick to remind people Deadpool & Wolverine is on Disney Plus, and probably some poor soul needing to justify his marketing job at Marvel. I feel for him. "That man is playing Galaga. Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

Still, I do think it shows Marvel hasn't forgotten about Hugh, and that the studio knows he's a huge draw. I think Marvel has major plans to keep using his character in a big way.

I'm hoping to see Jackman, Maguire and Downey on screen together

Hugh Jackman is part of what I'd call the holy trinity of Marvel: him, Tobey Maguire and Robert Downey Jr. These are the three kings of Marvel, and we've never seen them share the screen.

With Jackman's return as Wolverine, Maguire's return as Spider-Man, and Downey's return as a new character, Doctor Doom, a Doom who is somehow connected to Tony Stark, I'm hopeful. I think it's almost certain we'll see the three of them on screen together, maybe in Avengers: Doomsday, but definitely in Avengers: Secret Wars.

At the time, Kevin Feige had also said at CinemaCon, from the set of Doomsday, that there was still more cast to be announced. So, claws crossed that Hugh would be in Doomsday. In all honesty, the breathing clip is probably nothing. But I was excited for Avengers: Doomsday, and excited to see the X-Men and the Avengers on screen together.