Wolverine May Already Exist in the MCU, and ‘She-Hulk’ Left the Clues in Plain Sight

With the X-Men heading toward the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel has been laying breadcrumbs for years. Some are obvious casting teases, while others are tiny background details that are easy to miss on a first viewing. One of the sneakiest Wolverine Easter eggs in the MCU is now looking more meaningful than ever.

The payoff is close. ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ arrives Dec. 18 with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Kelsey Grammer, Alan Cumming, Channing Tatum, James Marsden and Rebecca Romijn all confirmed for the X-Men side of the story. Hugh Jackman has teased that his Wolverine may return, though his MCU future remains uncertain.

Long before any of that, though, ‘She-Hulk: Attorney at Law‘ slipped a hint into its second episode, ‘Superhuman Law.’ After Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) loses her job, she browses a website of offbeat jobs, and the sidebar lists two related articles: “Man fights with metal claws in bar brawl” and “Why there is a giant statue of a man sticking out of the ocean.”

With the X-men coming to the mcu soon, a friendly reminder that Wolverine might already exist, per She-Hulk easter egg
by u/justafanboy1010 in marvelstudios

The first headline is a clear nod to Wolverine, the X-Men’s most famous metal-clawed member. It also echoes the original ‘X-Men’ movie, where Hugh Jackman’s Logan gets into a bar fight and unleashes his claws. SYFY Wire suggested it could be an inside joke from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who got his start as a producer on that first film.

The second headline refers to the ending of ‘Eternals,’ which left the petrified Celestial Tiamut jutting out of the Indian Ocean. That made ‘She-Hulk’ the first MCU project since that film to acknowledge the event. Uproxx also noted at the time that the Wolverine reference was the third time the MCU had hinted that mutants exist.

The link between those two headlines became clear in ‘Captain America: Brave New World.’ The film revealed that a new metal, adamantium, had been discovered on Celestial Island, which formed when Tiamut emerged in the Indian Ocean. President Ross hosted a summit with world leaders as nations raced to claim ownership of the resource.

Adamantium is the metal that coats Wolverine’s skeleton and claws in the comics. Director Julius Onah confirmed that it would eventually become part of the story of Wolverine in the MCU, and he described it as a resource that could change the world in a way different from vibranium, which is under Wakanda’s purview.

Now the metal is showing up in weapons. In the second episode of ‘VisionQuest,’ titled ‘Theseus,’ the bounty hunter Paladin (Todd Stashwick) uses adamantium rounds to seriously wound Vision, whose body is normally nearly invulnerable. It’s a vivid demonstration of how the new material could change the rules of combat in the MCU.

Using ‘She-Hulk’ as a launchpad for Wolverine also fits his comic book history. The character made his first appearance in ‘The Incredible Hulk’ #180, where he battled the Hulk while hunting the Wendigo. Uproxx even speculated that Wolverine’s first MCU fight could involve Bruce Banner’s super-powered cousin.

Marvel has also been building the mutant roster in other ways. A recent report said Sadie Sink, Samara Weaving and Inde Navarrette lead a new generation of X-Men unveiled by the studio, although few details have surfaced so far.

Put the pieces together and the pattern is hard to ignore. A bar-brawl headline in ‘She-Hulk,’ a Celestial that turns out to be made of adamantium, and a mercenary firing adamantium rounds in ‘VisionQuest’ all point toward a world that is being prepared for Wolverine’s arrival.

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