Comic books are the definitive medium for superheroes in all their costumed, super powered, full color glory. When it comes to a comic book, no story is too outlandish. Beyond comic books, superheroes were a natural fit in animation. Live action was a logical step, but with that came budgetary restrictions and the need to be at least somewhat grounded.
Superheroes in live action achieved success without having their worlds translated directly: Superman and Batman in film, the Incredible Hulk on TV. Perfectly entertaining stories made it to the big screen without effects-heavy action scenes. But when superhero movies finally got their cutting edge special effects? The genre exploded. Spider-Man could swing from building to building in midtown Manhattan. Superman could engage in a high-speed aerial battle. By that point, it wasn’t the action that superhero movies had to struggle with translating. It was the costumes.
A superhero costume can restrict facial expression, highlight impossible anatomy, and even take an audience out of the story with ridiculous visuals. Those are advantages in comic books, but it’s no wonder live action has done its best to limit and downplay costumes. They mute colors, masks are ripped or torn to reveal the hero’s face during battle, and even fully armored characters like Iron Man manage to cut to Robert Downey Jr.’s face multiple times.
X-Men was the first big budget superhero team movie in 2000, and it was also the first superhero movie to make the biggest change from comic book costumes. You can only alter so much to Superman or Batman’s costume before they become unrecognizable, but all you need is a red visor to identify Cyclops. The Matrix look was popular during that time, so the X-Men were clad in black leather. The costumes worked in a superhero-team-as-paramilitary-unit sort of way, and some characters, like Storm, didn’t look that much different than their comic book counterparts. Wolverine, on the other hand, suffered the most. The most popular X-Man didn’t dress at all like he did in the comics, and his only distinguishing features were his hair and claws.
The X-Men costumes also worked as a rebuttal to the laughable costumes of the “Batman & Robin” from 1997 (the film that ended the old era of superhero films). When Cyclops tells Wolverine “What did you expect, yellow spandex?”, it’s arguably a criticism of the Joel Schumacher Batman films as much as it is a potshot at Wolverine’s costume from the comics.
The X-Men rocked this look for three movies, but in 2011, X-Men: First Class took a step closer to the costumes of the comic books. The original X-Men wore blue and gold costumes along with masks back in 1963. The movie version of Cyclops may have derided yellow spandex in 2000, but in 2011, everyone was sporting yellow and blue. X-Men: First Class explained that the team was wearing flight suits which would protect them in combat. In the case of someone like Havok, it would also help focus their power. Banshee in particular wore wings and looked just like his comic book version.
Masks were a separate issue. Spider-Man and Batman always have and always will wear masks, but is there room for them in the X-Universe? The X-Men don’t have secret identities, and the original five abandoned masks in the comics before the team’s roster expanded. Wolverine’s masked costume was created independently from the X-Men comics, so he simply carried that look when he joined the team. The X-Men movies that followed First Class continued putting their characters in comic book-like blue and gold costumes, but Wolverine himself seemed to wear less and less in his solo movies.
A Wolverine costume was teased in an unused scene in The Wolverine in 2013, but Hugh 
Jackman spent a good portion of the movie wearing less clothes and showing bare skin. Then came Logan in 2017, which was so far removed from its superhero roots that Wolverine’s codename wasn’t even part of the title. Given the tone and content of the movie, there was no real place in it for a costume anyway. On the other hand, you have the silliest X-character wearing a full mask and costume and being successful at it with Deadpool in 2016.
After a false start in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Deadpool finally appeared in a movie that embraced his personality and appearance. Wade Wilson’s body was scarred, so he already had the perfect reason to be covered from head to toe. Deadpool’s costume is striking, fun, and it fits his personality. His movies allowed someone like Negasonic Teenage Warhead to wear an X-Men costume without it being a big deal. So could the same be done for Wolverine?
It took a Deadpool movie to get Wolverine to suit up. This wasn’t the same version of Wolverine from the previous movies, but he was close enough. They could have just said that his version of the X-Men wore costumes and left it at that, but Wolverine’s costume became a significant plot point. According to Wolverine, Cyclops wanted him to wear a costume to solidify his place and commitment to the X-Men. One can only speculate what costumes these X-Men wore, but it probably signified that they are full-fledged superheroes who have completed their education and training at Xavier’s. Wolverine’s pride wouldn’t let him wear the costume, and he wasn’t with the team when they died. However, all throughout Deadpool & Wolverine, Wolverine wore his costume. It wasn’t just a symbol that respected his teammates, it was also mourning attire. But Wolverine’s look didn’t stop there.
The trailers were content with showing a costumed Wolverine from the neck down, but the movie’s big reveal was that he had a comic book accurate mask. Wolverine doesn’t have a secret identity or a facial deformity, and it did somewhat limit Hugh Jackman’s facial performance, but it worked.
Much like Deadpool and even the MCU version of Spider-Man, the white eyes of Wolverine’s mask could be enhanced by CGI. When a fully costumed Wolverine runs into battle, there’s a ferocity to him, and the audience realizes he’s fighting as an X-Men with the spirit of his fallen teammates beside him. So while various explanations have been given to the X-Men to be in or out of costume and Deadpool’s costume suits his purposes, Wolverine’s reason to wear a costume ended up being the most important of all. As Deadpool said, it took 20 years, but it paid off massively.
