In Deadpool & Wolverine, the clawed mutant meets Laura, his "daughter" from the Earth-100005 timeline. We first encountered her in 2017's Logan, with Wolverine making the ultimate sacrifice to give her and the other young mutants a chance to fight for the future.
While the threequel's Wolverine is a Variant from an unspecified reality, he ultimately chooses to make a home for himself on Earth-100005 alongside Laura (who was saved from The Void by the TVA).
However, it's now been confirmed that X-23 is not a Variant. Instead, she's the real deal from Logan!
"Shawn and Ryan are very intelligent people," actress Dafne Keen told ComicBook.com in a recent interview. "I was ready to be that annoying actor that's like, 'And what about this?' They had an answer for everything. [I said], "So how long has it been, am I Variant, what's going on?'"
"They were like, 'Not a Variant. You went along with the kids for a few years and then you got zapped. You've been in the TVA for a few years now. You lost your accent because you were in America for a while. You're a very intelligent kid, you learned English when you were with Logan...to you, you are Logan's Laura so seeing this person again is, 'Whoa, this is my dad who I haven't seen for years.'"
Deadpool & Wolverine hinted this might be the case when Laura put on those familiar sunglasses during the battle with Cassandra Nova's forces. We'd imagine this is a very deliberate move on Marvel Studios' part and we'd be shocked if X-23 doesn't finally suit up in Avengers: Secret Wars.
Addressing her MCU future, Keen said, "I would love to come back. I would pay them to come back. Playing Laura has been the biggest honor of my life. To me, we've only scratched the surface with her since she's such a complex character. She's so cool, just from a fan's standpoint."
There's been speculation among fans about the possibility of X-23 becoming the MCU's Wolverine in place of a new actor attempting to follow in Hugh Jackman's footsteps as Wolverine. That would be a controversial move but also an undeniably exciting one, especially as it's easy to imagine Keen doing a fantastic job in the role.
Shawn Levy directs Deadpool & Wolverine, which stars Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Matthew Macfadyen, and Dafne Keen. The movie is written by Ryan Reynolds & Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Zeb Wells & Shawn Levy.
Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in theaters.