15 Feasible Fan Hypotheses About Wolverine That Deserve A 'Yeah' From You
Wolverine is undoubtedly one of the most popular characters in the Marvel Universe, and his mysterious origin has sparked many fan theories. After all, it took Marvel decades to disclose his true identity and origin. Thus, between his introduction and the release of Wolverine: Origin is brimming with fascinating fan ideas. Regarding Marvel's deadliest mutant, fans have theorized about just about anything.
The most intriguing fan theories may be found on this list, which was compiled from the FanTheories subreddit. Fans publish their hypotheses on the site, and the most convincing and logical ones tend to rise to the top. And below are the 15 possible fan hypotheses about Wolverine that deserve a Yeah from you.
In X-Men: Days of Future Past, we find out that Kitty can send someone's consciousness back into their past body. Wolverine is the only one who can travel more than a few weeks back, and he successfully changes ~40 years of history.
Kitty and Wolverine do this more than one time. There's no way a man with as troubled of a past as Logan doesn't try to correct some other wrongs, and his changes are responsible for the discontinuities of the franchise.
They also cause his memory issues (we see in DoFP that the past Logan has no memories of future Logan's deeds, and future Logan awakes with no memory of the altered timeline). This adds an extra layer of sadness to the final Wolverine film (Logan): Professor X killed Kitty in the incident that wiped out the X-Men, and Logan can no longer fix the past.
After everything that happened in The Wolverine, Yukio was actually right all along. In The Wolverine, Yukio says she saw Logan's death. She says:"I see you on your back. There's blood everywhere. You're holding your own heart in your hand.
It's not beating." In The Wolverine, Logan obviously doesn't die, however, unlike in the bar scene near the beginning, she isn't clear on when he will die. She also claims to see the deaths through a key hole. This suggests she doesn't see the whole thing and so the location of Wolverine's death is also unclear.
At the end of Logan, after his fight with X-24, Wolverine is on his back, there's blood everywhere and he's holding hands with his daughter who is his metaphorical heart (this heart isn't beating because it's a person).
Wolverine is known to have volunteered and fought in numerous wars including WW1. Is it possible that in WW1 Wolverine had blood-work in an Army hospital in Germany and he had a lot of his blood taken for transfusion and scientific purposes?
Then Dr. Erskine studied Wolverine's blood and realized it held the key to immunizations, accelerated healing, and de-accelerated aging. Then in the period between 1918 - 1939, Dr. Erskine collected enough information from Wolverine's blood, using the proper technology, and Vita-Rays to make the Super-Solder-Formula, perfect it and help the United States of America make the Super Soldiers they were requesting for in WW2.
Then Dr. Erskine gave the formula to volunteer Steve Rogers making him into Captain America.
Part of Wolverine's mutation is an extremely heightened sense of smell. Logan smokes cigars, known for their pungent odor, to help cut down from being overwhelmed by the thousands of smells he interacts with everyday that his mutant powers crank up to 11.
Imagine being stuck in a new car, after stepping in dog poop, driving through a paper mill that was feshly painted... all day.
TL;DR: Wolverine wears a dumb bright yellow costume (that completely does not suit his personality) so that Sentinels will attack him and not teenage X-Men who really shouldn't even be around.
I was reading this interview with The Wolverine director James Mangold, on why after teasing Wolverine's yellow superhero costume from the comics they have not put it in any of the movies. Specifically, he says:
"Nothing seems less Wolverine-like than the desire to put on a trademarked outfit , particularly canary yellow, and kind of prance about doing good deeds and have people go, 'Oh my God! It’s The Wolverine!' At least as I see him, that’s a real struggle for me and always has been."
I think that this is true, and carries over to the comics. The stoic, grumpy, serious Wolverine doesn't really have a personality to match the flamboyant bright yellow costume. So why does he wear it? Consider: He only seems to wear the yellow costume when working with the X-Men.
When he is working on his own, he usually wears his everyday clothes. Practically half the X-Men are teenagers, depending on which version of the team. There's usually at least one underager on the team.
The particularly reactive nature of the X-Men as a superhero team made up of oppressed minorities makes putting insanely powerful teenagers in harmful situations look somewhat necessary. Wolverine is ridiculously tough and for all intents and purposes impervious to harm.
Wolverine is extremely protective of the young X-Men.
We know from various comic book sources (as well as some corroboration from the Captain America film) that those with healing factors struggle to feel the effects of alcohol and other drugs. So my theory is that Wolverine enjoys the feeling of his body healing above all else.
That's why he is always smoking and drinking; the drugs don't effect his pleasure as much as the natural healing factor. It can also explain why he's entirely reckless in battle. The worse he gets injured in a fight the better the high from healing.
Wolverine is a bad*ss. It is hard to imagine him getting hurt or being in pain at all. He gets shot, he growls, it heals, end of story. However I dont think it quite works out that way. He is able to completely heal everything. He gets shot, bullet comes out, and he is healed. No scar no nothing.
However what we dont realize is that he is never able to build up a callus to anything. For anybody who has ever hit a punching bag before you know that it hurts the first time you do it. You punch it a bunch and your (if you arent wearing any gloves or anything) your knuckles might tear, or bruise.
After a while though you can punch the bag more and more without feeling any pain. This shouldnt happen to Wolverine. His body always returns to a homeostatis. The callus on our skin over time heals so for Wolverine it should heal immediately.
In conclusion even though he seems like a ba*ss Wolverine is probably the most sensitive person in the world. Probably why somebody so blood thirsty is able to fall in love with every woman he meets.
In X-Men, Xavier and Logan to start discussing the possibility of Xavier unlocking Logan's past. Where was the human side of Logan for so many years before? How can a mutant that always heals from every wound never remember who they are or where they came from? Why couldn't Xavier unlock it? Simple... He killed it, himself.
My theory is that Logan, unable to cope with the guilt and reality of the monstrous things he had done or was subjected to, has tried to kill himself multiple times during his long life. He heals... I believe even his brain heals. It makes no sense that his "brain" being damaged wouldn't heal because he literally survived nuclear blasts and concussive blows that would put others in a vegetable state. However, even if the brain tissue heals... Memories don't come back with it.
Logan had lived through many generations of wars, being a tool for the hatred of others even when he didn't believe in the cause or desire to take part.
When he couldn't handle it anymore, he attempted disastrous efforts to try to take his own life, hoping that he would escape the tragedy and pain, always envious of others who could be free from their pain.
The reason Xavier couldn't see those memories had nothing to do with the Adamantium or Logan's rage. It was because only pieces and fragments of it were left in his brain, and Xavier could only see the fragments that were left.
It’s heavily implied in Logan that Xavier killed the X-Men due to his old age and mind. However, we never really get a clear answer to why Xavier resents Wolverine so much, with quotes like “Logan... What did you do?” and “What a disappointment you are.” My theory is that Xavier’s attack nearly killed the X-Men but the damage was done and couldn’t be reversed, Wolverine killed each of the X-Men to end their suffering.
Xavier, being the pacifist he has been through the series, was strongly against this. Ever since then Xavier has had some resentment towards Wolverine.
In the final scene of The Wolverine (2013), Logan tells Mariko that he can’t stay in Japan because he’s a soldier that’s been away too long, implying he’s going back to the X-Men. Yukio tells Logan that she’s his bodyguard and that they can take the private jet to wherever he wants to go
. This is where the timeline splits, James Mangold only deleted the part where Wolverine gets his costume because it didn’t line up with Singer’s Days of Future Past. So Simon Kinberg wrote the mid-credit scene, that takes place 2 years later in the airport.
In the “2 Years Later” timeline, Logan tells Yukio to drop him off somewhere, and he continues to be a lone drifter for 2 years until Magneto and Professor X recruit him to fight the Sentinels.
In the “Days of Future Past” timeline, Yukio’s prediction about Logan dying covered in blood with his heart in his hand refers to the scene where Logan temporarily dies pulling off the healing suppressing robot from his heart. In the “Logan" timeline, it refers to him dying covered with blood while holding hands with Laura.
TL;DR Jean was pulling her punches in Last Stand so Logan could kill her. Upon her death, Jean implanted her personality into Wolverine's mind. Both Phoenix and Jean had motivation to do this - Jean would have done so as means of survival/ Phoenix as a way of punishing him for killing her.
We can see that the dreams cause Wolverine great distress so however also offer him a way of communicate with a woman he loves, so can be seen as both a blessing and a curse.
This is why Logan is having incredibly vivid dreams of Jean during The Wolverine, as they seem to replicate her personality rather well and he has actual conversations with her.
During the climax of Logan we learn that a shadow government has been secretly slipping gene suppressing drugs into gluten based products. It’s not age that’s killing Logan/Wolverine. It’s alcohol. My theory is that if Wolverine just went on a gluten free diet, he would have gained his powers back.
Because as we can see throughout Logan; he has taken to hard drinking very heavily. And since the x-gene suppressants were working through the alcohol. He started to feel like it was to get drunk, maybe for the first time in his entire life. That’s why he an alcoholic. It was drink that killed Wolverine.
Not age or some dumb fan theory about the previous Movies.never happened.
One of the key plot points was how Jean Valjean managed to survive hard labor in prison for almost 20 years and how unnaturally strong he was. Most starving peasants would not survive that long in prison let along be strong inside and outside jail.
The first mutants were born in ancient times (Apocalypse etc) Valjean was born in 1760, Wolverine in 1880s. The key trait of mutants is that similar powers pass down to their children, Rachel Grey has psychic powers, Nightcrawler from his dad.
Polaris has magnetism etc. The major deal breaker here is that Valjean doesn't have any recorded blood children. However, he does go to jail at 28 for stealing to feed his nephew, this indicates relatives who may have moved to America/Canada after the revolutionary war. He may also have some illegitimate children before going into prison.
Intending to capture these various individuals to use as weapons for the purpose of furthering their own goals of world domination, Hydra looked to duplicate Project Rebirth and Captain America by experimenting on whatever mutants they could get their hands on.
This led to the formation of the Weapons Plus project which ran up to and included the creations of Nuke/Frank Simpson (Weapon 7), Wolverine (Weapon 10), the Stepford Cuckoos (Weapon 14) and Deadpool.
The X-Men would show up, wisk the mutant off and the minds of those who witnessed the events would be wiped by Xavier who would implant memories of a manmade or natural disaster to explain the destruction.
This remained the status quo for the mutant population until Vision was activated by the Avengers. Being a robot and possessing the mind stone which has a level of mental power Xavier was unable to overcome, some time after the events of Age of Ultron, Vision realized the existence of mutants and discovered Xavier as the source of why no one remembered them.
Visiting Xavier and being given an explanation, Vision agreed to keep Xavier's actions secret which will then ultimately be revealed in the aftermath of Infinity War.
For the sake of the argument, I'm only considering the movie universe of Wolverine. I mean, this isn't the first time a character hase been reimagined a few different ways. Wolverine's fear of flying. People are usually afraid of things because they'll either be extremely painful or there's potential of dying.
It didn't make sense to me because during any given plane crash, he'd absolutely be the number 1 candidate to survive and he's got an impressive pain tolerances. And he previously showed no sign of flying in any other X Men movie. So I found the movie timeline for this universe. We know Wolverine is kind of an emotional character and dwells in the past. I don't think I've ever seen a character have so many flashbacks and reactions to memories.
Like he's got a flashback every movie plus he's got 2 prequels and a movie where he time travels to the past. The Wolverine's story spoiler We see that in just about every movie where he revisits the lab where he got the adamantium, being there triggers some PTSD flashback stuff. This also happens often with dreams.
In the timeline X2 comes before The Wolverine. At the end of X2 spoiler I think this event is what causes him to be afraid of the plane. He blames himself for it and he lives with a lot of regret. Wolverine isn't terrified of being on planes because he's afraid of dying, he's in pain.
His memories are the only scars that won't heal. This makes flying one of the hardest things to do. Maybe this is why he moved into the forest. When he's so removed from everything, he can't trigger flashbacks and he can't accidentally hurt anyone again.
The most intriguing fan theories may be found on this list, which was compiled from the FanTheories subreddit. Fans publish their hypotheses on the site, and the most convincing and logical ones tend to rise to the top. And below are the 15 possible fan hypotheses about Wolverine that deserve a Yeah from you.
1. The X-Men Is Continually Changing Due To Logan And Kitty
Source: Marvel Studio
In X-Men: Days of Future Past, we find out that Kitty can send someone's consciousness back into their past body. Wolverine is the only one who can travel more than a few weeks back, and he successfully changes ~40 years of history.
Kitty and Wolverine do this more than one time. There's no way a man with as troubled of a past as Logan doesn't try to correct some other wrongs, and his changes are responsible for the discontinuities of the franchise.
They also cause his memory issues (we see in DoFP that the past Logan has no memories of future Logan's deeds, and future Logan awakes with no memory of the altered timeline). This adds an extra layer of sadness to the final Wolverine film (Logan): Professor X killed Kitty in the incident that wiped out the X-Men, and Logan can no longer fix the past.
2. Yukio's Hunch About Logan Related To X-23
Source: Marvel Studio
After everything that happened in The Wolverine, Yukio was actually right all along. In The Wolverine, Yukio says she saw Logan's death. She says:"I see you on your back. There's blood everywhere. You're holding your own heart in your hand.
It's not beating." In The Wolverine, Logan obviously doesn't die, however, unlike in the bar scene near the beginning, she isn't clear on when he will die. She also claims to see the deaths through a key hole. This suggests she doesn't see the whole thing and so the location of Wolverine's death is also unclear.
At the end of Logan, after his fight with X-24, Wolverine is on his back, there's blood everywhere and he's holding hands with his daughter who is his metaphorical heart (this heart isn't beating because it's a person).
3. The Super Soldier Serum Is Related To Logan's Blood
Source: Marvel Studio
Wolverine is known to have volunteered and fought in numerous wars including WW1. Is it possible that in WW1 Wolverine had blood-work in an Army hospital in Germany and he had a lot of his blood taken for transfusion and scientific purposes?
Then Dr. Erskine studied Wolverine's blood and realized it held the key to immunizations, accelerated healing, and de-accelerated aging. Then in the period between 1918 - 1939, Dr. Erskine collected enough information from Wolverine's blood, using the proper technology, and Vita-Rays to make the Super-Solder-Formula, perfect it and help the United States of America make the Super Soldiers they were requesting for in WW2.
Then Dr. Erskine gave the formula to volunteer Steve Rogers making him into Captain America.
4. Wolverine Smokes Cigars To Cope With His Mutation
Source: Marvel Studio
Part of Wolverine's mutation is an extremely heightened sense of smell. Logan smokes cigars, known for their pungent odor, to help cut down from being overwhelmed by the thousands of smells he interacts with everyday that his mutant powers crank up to 11.
Imagine being stuck in a new car, after stepping in dog poop, driving through a paper mill that was feshly painted... all day.
5. Wolverine Puts On Bright Yellow Spandex To Let The Enemies Attack Him Instead Of The Kids
Source: Marvel Studio
TL;DR: Wolverine wears a dumb bright yellow costume (that completely does not suit his personality) so that Sentinels will attack him and not teenage X-Men who really shouldn't even be around.
I was reading this interview with The Wolverine director James Mangold, on why after teasing Wolverine's yellow superhero costume from the comics they have not put it in any of the movies. Specifically, he says:
"Nothing seems less Wolverine-like than the desire to put on a trademarked outfit , particularly canary yellow, and kind of prance about doing good deeds and have people go, 'Oh my God! It’s The Wolverine!' At least as I see him, that’s a real struggle for me and always has been."
I think that this is true, and carries over to the comics. The stoic, grumpy, serious Wolverine doesn't really have a personality to match the flamboyant bright yellow costume. So why does he wear it? Consider: He only seems to wear the yellow costume when working with the X-Men.
When he is working on his own, he usually wears his everyday clothes. Practically half the X-Men are teenagers, depending on which version of the team. There's usually at least one underager on the team.
The particularly reactive nature of the X-Men as a superhero team made up of oppressed minorities makes putting insanely powerful teenagers in harmful situations look somewhat necessary. Wolverine is ridiculously tough and for all intents and purposes impervious to harm.
Wolverine is extremely protective of the young X-Men.
6. Wolverine's Healing Factor Gives Him a High
Source: Marvel Studio
We know from various comic book sources (as well as some corroboration from the Captain America film) that those with healing factors struggle to feel the effects of alcohol and other drugs. So my theory is that Wolverine enjoys the feeling of his body healing above all else.
That's why he is always smoking and drinking; the drugs don't effect his pleasure as much as the natural healing factor. It can also explain why he's entirely reckless in battle. The worse he gets injured in a fight the better the high from healing.
7. Wolverine Should Not Be Prudent To Hurt
Source: Marvel Studio
Wolverine is a bad*ss. It is hard to imagine him getting hurt or being in pain at all. He gets shot, he growls, it heals, end of story. However I dont think it quite works out that way. He is able to completely heal everything. He gets shot, bullet comes out, and he is healed. No scar no nothing.
However what we dont realize is that he is never able to build up a callus to anything. For anybody who has ever hit a punching bag before you know that it hurts the first time you do it. You punch it a bunch and your (if you arent wearing any gloves or anything) your knuckles might tear, or bruise.
After a while though you can punch the bag more and more without feeling any pain. This shouldnt happen to Wolverine. His body always returns to a homeostatis. The callus on our skin over time heals so for Wolverine it should heal immediately.
In conclusion even though he seems like a ba*ss Wolverine is probably the most sensitive person in the world. Probably why somebody so blood thirsty is able to fall in love with every woman he meets.
8. Logan's Memory Loss Is Not Because Of The Adamantium
Source: Marvel Studio
In X-Men, Xavier and Logan to start discussing the possibility of Xavier unlocking Logan's past. Where was the human side of Logan for so many years before? How can a mutant that always heals from every wound never remember who they are or where they came from? Why couldn't Xavier unlock it? Simple... He killed it, himself.
My theory is that Logan, unable to cope with the guilt and reality of the monstrous things he had done or was subjected to, has tried to kill himself multiple times during his long life. He heals... I believe even his brain heals. It makes no sense that his "brain" being damaged wouldn't heal because he literally survived nuclear blasts and concussive blows that would put others in a vegetable state. However, even if the brain tissue heals... Memories don't come back with it.
Logan had lived through many generations of wars, being a tool for the hatred of others even when he didn't believe in the cause or desire to take part.
When he couldn't handle it anymore, he attempted disastrous efforts to try to take his own life, hoping that he would escape the tragedy and pain, always envious of others who could be free from their pain.
The reason Xavier couldn't see those memories had nothing to do with the Adamantium or Logan's rage. It was because only pieces and fragments of it were left in his brain, and Xavier could only see the fragments that were left.
9. Wolverine Killed The X-Men For Mercy
Source: Marvel Studio
It’s heavily implied in Logan that Xavier killed the X-Men due to his old age and mind. However, we never really get a clear answer to why Xavier resents Wolverine so much, with quotes like “Logan... What did you do?” and “What a disappointment you are.” My theory is that Xavier’s attack nearly killed the X-Men but the damage was done and couldn’t be reversed, Wolverine killed each of the X-Men to end their suffering.
Xavier, being the pacifist he has been through the series, was strongly against this. Ever since then Xavier has had some resentment towards Wolverine.
10. Logan Is Set In A Timeline After The Events Of 'The Wolverine,' In Which Logan And Yukio Flew Back To The X-Mansion.
Source: Marvel Studio
In the final scene of The Wolverine (2013), Logan tells Mariko that he can’t stay in Japan because he’s a soldier that’s been away too long, implying he’s going back to the X-Men. Yukio tells Logan that she’s his bodyguard and that they can take the private jet to wherever he wants to go
. This is where the timeline splits, James Mangold only deleted the part where Wolverine gets his costume because it didn’t line up with Singer’s Days of Future Past. So Simon Kinberg wrote the mid-credit scene, that takes place 2 years later in the airport.
In the “2 Years Later” timeline, Logan tells Yukio to drop him off somewhere, and he continues to be a lone drifter for 2 years until Magneto and Professor X recruit him to fight the Sentinels.
In the “Days of Future Past” timeline, Yukio’s prediction about Logan dying covered in blood with his heart in his hand refers to the scene where Logan temporarily dies pulling off the healing suppressing robot from his heart. In the “Logan" timeline, it refers to him dying covered with blood while holding hands with Laura.
11. Wolverine's Misery Was A Psychological Print
Source: Marvel Studio
TL;DR Jean was pulling her punches in Last Stand so Logan could kill her. Upon her death, Jean implanted her personality into Wolverine's mind. Both Phoenix and Jean had motivation to do this - Jean would have done so as means of survival/ Phoenix as a way of punishing him for killing her.
We can see that the dreams cause Wolverine great distress so however also offer him a way of communicate with a woman he loves, so can be seen as both a blessing and a curse.
This is why Logan is having incredibly vivid dreams of Jean during The Wolverine, as they seem to replicate her personality rather well and he has actual conversations with her.
12. Alcohol Vs. Logan
Source: Marvel Studio
During the climax of Logan we learn that a shadow government has been secretly slipping gene suppressing drugs into gluten based products. It’s not age that’s killing Logan/Wolverine. It’s alcohol. My theory is that if Wolverine just went on a gluten free diet, he would have gained his powers back.
Because as we can see throughout Logan; he has taken to hard drinking very heavily. And since the x-gene suppressants were working through the alcohol. He started to feel like it was to get drunk, maybe for the first time in his entire life. That’s why he an alcoholic. It was drink that killed Wolverine.
Not age or some dumb fan theory about the previous Movies.never happened.
13. Jean Valjean Was A Predecessor To Wolverine
Source: Marvel Studio
One of the key plot points was how Jean Valjean managed to survive hard labor in prison for almost 20 years and how unnaturally strong he was. Most starving peasants would not survive that long in prison let along be strong inside and outside jail.
The first mutants were born in ancient times (Apocalypse etc) Valjean was born in 1760, Wolverine in 1880s. The key trait of mutants is that similar powers pass down to their children, Rachel Grey has psychic powers, Nightcrawler from his dad.
Polaris has magnetism etc. The major deal breaker here is that Valjean doesn't have any recorded blood children. However, he does go to jail at 28 for stealing to feed his nephew, this indicates relatives who may have moved to America/Canada after the revolutionary war. He may also have some illegitimate children before going into prison.
14. Wolverine And Deadpool Were Made By Hydra
Source: Marvel Studio
Intending to capture these various individuals to use as weapons for the purpose of furthering their own goals of world domination, Hydra looked to duplicate Project Rebirth and Captain America by experimenting on whatever mutants they could get their hands on.
This led to the formation of the Weapons Plus project which ran up to and included the creations of Nuke/Frank Simpson (Weapon 7), Wolverine (Weapon 10), the Stepford Cuckoos (Weapon 14) and Deadpool.
The X-Men would show up, wisk the mutant off and the minds of those who witnessed the events would be wiped by Xavier who would implant memories of a manmade or natural disaster to explain the destruction.
This remained the status quo for the mutant population until Vision was activated by the Avengers. Being a robot and possessing the mind stone which has a level of mental power Xavier was unable to overcome, some time after the events of Age of Ultron, Vision realized the existence of mutants and discovered Xavier as the source of why no one remembered them.
Visiting Xavier and being given an explanation, Vision agreed to keep Xavier's actions secret which will then ultimately be revealed in the aftermath of Infinity War.
15. Logan Abhors Planes Due To Jean's Sacrifice
Source: Marvel Studio
For the sake of the argument, I'm only considering the movie universe of Wolverine. I mean, this isn't the first time a character hase been reimagined a few different ways. Wolverine's fear of flying. People are usually afraid of things because they'll either be extremely painful or there's potential of dying.
It didn't make sense to me because during any given plane crash, he'd absolutely be the number 1 candidate to survive and he's got an impressive pain tolerances. And he previously showed no sign of flying in any other X Men movie. So I found the movie timeline for this universe. We know Wolverine is kind of an emotional character and dwells in the past. I don't think I've ever seen a character have so many flashbacks and reactions to memories.
Like he's got a flashback every movie plus he's got 2 prequels and a movie where he time travels to the past. The Wolverine's story spoiler We see that in just about every movie where he revisits the lab where he got the adamantium, being there triggers some PTSD flashback stuff. This also happens often with dreams.
In the timeline X2 comes before The Wolverine. At the end of X2 spoiler I think this event is what causes him to be afraid of the plane. He blames himself for it and he lives with a lot of regret. Wolverine isn't terrified of being on planes because he's afraid of dying, he's in pain.
His memories are the only scars that won't heal. This makes flying one of the hardest things to do. Maybe this is why he moved into the forest. When he's so removed from everything, he can't trigger flashbacks and he can't accidentally hurt anyone again.
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