Although ’90s kids grew up associating Wolverine with his iconic yellow and blue (or yellow and brown) costume, the look was apparently too reminiscent of a comic book for the filmmakers behind 2000’s X-Men.
Since Hugh Jackman first produced his adamantium-coated claws in that early superhero flick, fans have relished his interpretation of the character. But going on 25 years now, they’ve been clamoring for a costume more in line with the Marvel comics, the ’90s animated series on Fox, and a host of early video games.
Now that we’ve gotten a sneak peek at Jackman’s Wolverine costume for the Ryan Reynolds-starring Deadpool 3, let’s rank the (mostly uninspired) costumes that the live-action Logan has worn on screen from worst to best.
Please note that we’re picky about what constitutes an actual in-universe “costume,” meaning we won’t be incorporating Logan’s casual wear — such as the leather jacket and white tank top of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the long coat featured in The Wolverine, and the suit-jacket-and-white-tank combo in Logan.
5.) X-Men costume (2000)
The first costume Wolverine ever puts on in the Fox-produced film series is definitely the worst. Director Bryan Singer chose to put all the mutants in the same dull getup for the early chapters of the franchise. Here, Logan is covered neck to feet in black leather, without much in the way of adornments besides a tiny “X” symbol on the belt and the collar and some mustard-colored stitching. There’s even a joke in the film about yellow spandex, which would have been preferable to this — but only if the other X-Men got their own distinct costumes as well.
4.) X-Men: Days of Future Past costume (2014)
Singer returned to the franchise after a 12-year absence to tackle dual narratives in Days of Future Past. In the film, Wolverine goes back in time to stop Mystique from killing someone and altering history for the worse. Although Wolverine rocks a pretty sweet ’70s getup in the past, he only wears an official costume in the brief segments taking place in the future.
Blending in with the cool blue environs of a post-apocalyptic hellscape, Wolverine wears a pretty standard dark gray body suit that looks to be reinforced with armor plating — maybe to stop blasts from the mutant-killing Sentinels that are out to destroy him, regardless of his ability to heal. Jackman wears the suit well, but Logan’s just aping Snake’s drip from Metal Gear Solid, which would have been awesome if this were an adaptation of that instead of X-Men.
3.) X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand costume (2002, 2006)
Things are slightly better in the first two X-Men sequels, but not much: Singer chose to tweak the X1 costumes slightly, realizing a giant “X” on Wolverine’s chest that functions similarly to Batman promoting his own logo. It’s not a huge change to the black leather doldrums, but at least it conveys that Wolverine is now officially part of the team and not just a confused interloper like the first time around. The costume appears to be primarily the same in the trilogy-closer X-Men: The Last Stand, probably because director Brett Ratner has no original ideas of his own.
2.) X-Men: Apocalypse Weapon X costume (2016)
We might be cheating by including this costume: Comics nerds will rightly argue that Jackman is not really playing Wolverine in this extended cameo; instead, he’s Weapon X, the byproduct of government genetic research to harness Logan’s power. But it’s still Wolverine’s body, and Jackman is playing him. And there are barely any good costumes to talk about here, so just let us have this one.
The Weapon X outfit, known for its ghastly tubes and giant VR helmet to hold back Logan’s rage, is refreshingly comics-accurate, primarily showcasing Jackman’s muscled form to convey his animalistic nature at this point in the canon. We’d rather see him in this than a nondescript black one-piece, but, hey, we don’t make movies.
1.) Deadpool 3 costume (2024)
That’s right. We’re ranking the costume we’ve seen one single image of in first place.
It’s not just because Deadpool 3 is finally allowing Wolverine to dress in a bright yellow outfit; it’s because the outfit looks dope as hell, even in what appears to be regular outdoor lighting away from a cinematographer’s suggestion. The yellow bounces nicely off Deadpool’s deep red suit, the extended shoulders frame Jackman well and recall early drawings of the character, and the “X” belt is straight out of Saturday morning cartoon fare. We haven’t even seen Jackman wearing the classic helmet yet, and already this looks to be exactly what X fans have been craving since 2000.
There was one other costume technically featured in an X-adjacent movie: The yellow and brown suit made an appearance in a deleted ending scene for James Mangold’s The Wolverine. Nobody wore it, so we didn’t include it here, but you can glimpse the tease below:
Let’s hope our ranking holds once Deadpool 3 lands in cinemas next year and that director Shawn Levy isn’t secretly making the suit digital for the majority of the movie. That didn’t work so well in previous Ryan Reynolds films.