The Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to take one giant leap in mutant-kind by reintroducing Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in Deadpool 3. While Ms. Marvel was recently teased to be a mutant herself, along with a few other newly-introduced characters, Wolverine will, as of writing, be the largest mutant name in the MCU by the time the film releases. We should not be surprised that the character will be making some appearance in the MCU as he was twice teased in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
While Marvel does plan on introducing Wolverine in the MCU, it is worth pondering if and when they will introduce any of the other X-Men. If they take their time introducing the X-Men, could they introduce other characters close to Wolverine, namely his son?
Will the MCU introduce Daken?
In Marvel Comics, among the many miniseries and tales of the different universes, Wolverine has had many children and multiple sons. For the sake of this discussion, let’s take a look at his main son, Daken. He is the son of Wolverine and his pregnant wife at the time Itsu. His origin in the comics could actually lead credence to his introduction in the MCU, as the Winter Soldier was responsible for Itsu’s death in the source material. As Daken had inherited his father’s healing factor, he managed to survive the death of his mother.
Over the years Daken, has had a complicated relationship with his father. After having a less-than-stellar childhood with his adoptive parents and being manipulated by people as he was growing up, Daken resented Wolverine. This led him to face his father in combat many times across his publication history, with Wolverine ultimately killing him, although he was later resurrected.
While he was originally a supervillain spurred by his hatred toward Logan, Daken turned into more of an antihero, ultimately becoming a hero. This is not uncommon with fan-favorite characters across the Marvel and DC universes, like Harley Quinn, the Punisher, Venom, and Deadpool.
It would be smart to introduce Daken into the MCU for a number of reasons. Firstly, while Fox made a number of X-Men and Wolverine movies, they did not once adapt Daken, giving the MCU the first crack at nailing a live-action version of the character. Secondly, while Hugh Jackman seems thrilled to be returning for Deadpool 3, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to fathom that the actor might not want to reprise his role for much longer. Introducing more of Wolverine’s family, like Daken or X-23, after Hugh Jackman’s eventual departure would give the audience another opportunity to miss the character. This would ensure that his eventual rebooted return might be more welcome than it might have been otherwise.
It is also worth noting that Daken took up the mantle of Wolverine in the Dark Avengers lineup. The Dark Avengers were formed by Norman Osborn with a group of villains who posed as the Avengers. For example, Bullseye took on the role of Hawkeye while Mac Gargan (first Scorpion and later Venom) became Spider-Man. After Avengers: Secret Wars, it might be tough for the MCU to introduce large threats for their future films. It is certainly possible that they could adapt a version of the Dark Avengers in a future phase of the MCU with Daken on the main team.
While we do not have a definitive answer as to whether Wolverine’s son will make it to the MCU, it seems more than likely that they will try to bring the character into the fold. Considering that he is one of the few Marvel characters who we have not yet seen onscreen, including him makes the most sense. It seems like with each passing MCU film or Disney Plus series, Marvel is introducing more characters that have not yet had their live-action debuts, so they can keep expanding their universe. Therefore Daken, alongside some of Marvel’s lesser-known mutants, seems like a shoo-in for an eventual MCU appearance.
With no X-Men films made public in the current MCU pipeline, it might be a while until we see Daken slash his way into the MCU. The next known film in which Wolverine will be returning is Deadpool 3, which was recently pushed back from September 2024 to November of the same year. We might not be seeing Wolverine’s son until at least 2026 if Marvel does intend to wait to introduce their X-Men until after The Multiverse Saga.