Michael Green earned an Oscar nomination for co-writing 2017's Logan with James Mangold and Scott Frank. As you'll no doubt recall, the movie was meant to serve as Hugh Jackman's swansong as the character after a near-20-year run as the clawed mutant.
However, when Marvel Studios and Ryan Reynolds decided to move forward with Deadpool 3, the actor decided to suit up (literally) in Deadpool & Wolverine.
The R-Rated threequel stuck by its promises to leave Logan alone and that specific Wolverine Variant wasn't resurrected. His Adamantium skeleton was dug up, though, and used by Wade Wilson to brutally murder a squadron of TVA agents...to the tune of NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye."
In a new interview with IGN, Green - who also helped write 2011's Green Lantern starring Ryan Reynolds - broke his silence on Deadpool & Wolverine's "homage" to Logan.
"People had warned me ahead of time, 'Uh, I don’t know how you’re gonna feel about the opening [of Deadpool & Wolverine],'" he explains. "I’m like, 'I think I know what’s gonna happen.' And I did not know! I didn’t know they were gonna go that far."
"You weren’t meant to take seriously that they were, like, digging him up, and that it was really him," Green continued. "It felt less like they were trying to change the ending of 'Logan' as they were contending with not feeling that they wanted to make a movie as good as they felt 'Logan' was, which is a huge compliment! I felt like it was nothing but complimentary."
The writer went on to say Deadpool & Wolverine was such "a good time" and added, "When we saw it in a full theater, people went bananas to everything. It’s great. It’s a great franchise, like, more, please!"
"You know what I appreciate even more was no Green Lantern jokes because I was partly responsible. You gotta wear it with a badge of honor!"
When the movie ends, the Wolverine Variant who failed his world has found redemption and made a home for himself on Earth-100005 alongside the Merc with the Mouth and Laura/X-23. We now expect the trio to return in Avengers: Doomsay and/or Avengers: Secret Wars.
You can hear more from Green below. We also have some new Deadpool & Wolverine concept art from John Staub showing his take on Wolverine Variant, Patch.