Now that Disney has acquired 21st Century Fox and the rights to the X-Men have reverted back to Marvel Studios, Wolverine will be joining the MCU within the next few years. Unfortunately for whoever Kevin Feige casts, Hugh Jackman will be a tough act to follow. He spent two decades crafting the definitive on-screen portrayal of the character and concluded his arc in powerful fashion in James Mangold’s R-rated neo-western gem Logan.
In order to differentiate Wolverine’s MCU adventures from Jackman’s stint in the Fox franchise, Marvel will have to do something radically new with the character. The great thing about Wolverine’s agelessness is that he has a centuries-spanning lifetime incorporating various historical eras, so he can go on a bunch of cool standalone adventures throughout history. This would be a great opportunity for a psychedelic, action-packed Vietnam War movie set in the MCU that mixes intense warfare with comic book spectacle, like Captain America: The First Avenger did with its pulpy portrayal of conflict in World War II.
Since the beginning, the MCU has managed to stand out by telling its familiar superhero stories through unconventional genre frameworks. Spider-Man: Homecoming is a high school comedy in the style of John Hughes, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a paranoid political thriller in the vein of The Parallax View, and Captain Marvel is a ‘90s actioner like Speed or T2. The franchise has yet to tackle the Vietnam-era subgenre of war movies, but from Platoon to Full Metal Jacket, Vietnam movies have a sumptuous aesthetic of their own that could make a visually stunning backdrop for a superhero blockbuster.
Wolvie could storm through the jungles as a one-man army, like Rambo, kicking butt, taking names, and liberating P.O.W.s. It could even be framed as Apocalypse Now with superpowers, as Logan is sent up a treacherous river to assassinate a villainous mutant. The haunting realities of the Vietnam War explored in particularly harrowing films like The Deer Hunter might make it difficult to accept a superhero movie with that setting, but Kong: Skull Island proved that a crowd-pleasing blockbuster can evoke Vietnam imagery without losing its sense of fun. A Vietnam-set Wolverine movie could even have a riff on The Deer Hunter’s infamous Russian roulette scene in which Logan takes a bullet to the head and survives.
The opening montage of X-Men Origins: Wolverine briefly covers Logan’s history as a soldier, as he and his half-brother are seen fighting in the American Civil War, both World Wars, and eventually even in the Vietnam War. But this was just a brief couple of scenes. There’s enough material in the premise of Wolverine fighting in ‘Nam for a whole movie.
In the X-Men Origins movie’s Vietnam sequence, Victor Creed tries to sexually assault a Vietnamese woman and Logan rushes to his defense, which gets them both executed by firing squad, which their mutant powers allow them to survive. After that, the story moves on to William Stryker signing them up for the Weapon X program. It missed out on all the visual possibilities of Vietnam War scenes: jungle landscapes, bright bursts of napalm, widespread psychedelic drug use.
Another great opportunity presented by Vietnam War movies is the ability to fill the soundtrack with ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll hits. So far, the MCU’s soundtracks have been a goldmine for rock fans, from Thor: Ragnarok’s use of “Immigrant Song” to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’s use of “The Chain” to Iron Man’s use of, well, “Iron Man.” A Wolvie-centric Vietnam War movie could incorporate songs like Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son.”
It’s unclear how Marvel will incorporate the X-Men into the MCU. It’ll be difficult to explain why a school full of superpowered mutants has been around for decades and none of them decided to help when Thanos came to Earth. It’s possible that they’ll be introduced via the multiverse, but there are so many iconic mutants – Professor X, Magneto, Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Iceman, the list goes on – that they can’t possibly all be introduced at once.
Bringing in the characters one at a time would give casual audiences a chance to get to know each of them before the whole team assembles. Introducing Wolverine in the context of the Vietnam War, circa the ‘60s or ‘70s, would be a great way to remove him from the wider MCU and establish his characterization on his own terms before integrating him into the larger universe.
There are some Marvel fans calling for a Wolverine solo movie set in World War II that would cross over with Steve Rogers’ adventures with the Howling Commandos, but that would rehash The First Avenger and also defeat the purpose of a Wolverine solo movie in the first place. In the hands of the right filmmaker, a brutal, surreal, hard-R superhero war movie that plays like Hamburger Hill starring Wolverine could be awesome.