Deadpool & Wolverine costume designer breaks down Hugh Jackman's comic-accurate suit (exclusive)

Graham Churchyard fought the urge to respond to commenters on social media last July when the first Deadpool & Wolverine paparazzi photos leaked from the set in the U.K. A costume designer who worked on a cacophony of superhero movies, including Guardians of the Galaxy, Justice League, and Spider-Man: Far From Home, Churchyard paid attention to the fan response around Logan's new look. 

"People were freaking out going, 'Oh my God! He's got sleeves. He can't have sleeves. What's going to happen here? He has no mask,'" he tells Entertainment Weekly over Zoom in July from Madrid, where he's working on his next big job. "I just wanted to chip in on Instagram to say, 'It's a story! It's a development. It's his first appearance. You have to tell the whole story of his transition.'"

Churchyard couldn't, of course. He would run the risk of breaking NDAs and revealing key details about the film too soon. He does, however, understand the intense reaction. With fellow costume designer Mayes C. Rubeo, they are finally giving Wolverine fans what they've been waiting years to see: a live-action costume that is accurate to the blue-and-yellow look from the comics. 

Jackman made his first of nine Wolverine appearances across the now-dormant X-Men movie franchise from 20th Century Fox in 2000's namesake title, though he appeared in a full black leather suit. There was even a gag written into the script where James Marsden's Cyclops quips, "What do you prefer? Yellow spandex?" As far as fans are concerned, yes! They want it. But as the years went on, including three standalone Wolverine films, that suit never arrived. Director James Mangold released a deleted scene from The Wolverine showing a more comics-accurate suit, but that was as close as we got. 

This all changes in Deadpool & Wolverine, which welcomes Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson and Jackman's Logan into the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe. "The anticipation of it is pretty crazy," Churchyard says. "I worked on a number of superhero films. Everyone wants to see what Thor's going to look like next or Captain America or Black Widow, but I think this is possibly one of the biggest things to hit the world for some time. There's been a lot of things in recent movies that didn't quite hit the mark or things weren't accurate. I just think that what we delivered here was so amazing."

Churchyard doesn't know exactly why the previous films did not introduce the blue-and-yellow suit. He's thankful for it because Deadpool & Wolverine can now capitalize on that anticipation. "They made 18 of those suits," he says of his manufacturing team. "If you were lucky to make one a week, then that would be amazing. They didn't have that amount of time to make all of them. So just the engineering of all those fabrics and materials that go into that is really something else." 

He confirms there are about "five stages of aging" that went into Jackman's look, and you can see some of them in the materials released so far to market the film. There's the main pristine blue-and-yellow costume with sleeves; then there's a version riddled with the wear and tear of battle (bullet holes included), and one without sleeves and the blue shoulder pieces. This progression tells the story of the movie. 

"We always knew that he needed to be sleeveless in a part of the story, but we started with the sleeves, and then he goes through such extraordinary, violent, frenetic battles that sleeves become so shredded they just don't exist anymore — not just fighting with adversaries, but fighting with Deadpool himself," Churchyard explains. "Those decisions weren't contrived; they were because of a point in the story. There's one fight that goes on, the sun goes down, and the sun comes up, and they're still fighting." 

There's another scene Churchyard simply refers to as "the oner," referring to an unbroken continuous take. "It's a single shot that goes on for four minutes, and it's absolutely frantic, battling against adversaries," he teases. "That's where he becomes so shredded, justifying the sleeves no longer being there."

Further logistical realities dictated the look. Churchyard offers a few examples, like how you need to insert foam parts underneath sleeves to enhance the muscles. ("It doesn't matter how tight the costume is," he says.) And then, when Jackman ditches the sleeves to deliver the look that fans want, the shoulder pieces needed to go for other reasons. "If he keeps those massive shoulders on, certain angles just diminish the bicep so much they'd have to visually enhance it, and then you'd be upset because they've been digitally enhanced," Churchyard explains. "You kind of have to let the costume tell the story sometimes."

One costume moment hasn't been seen in any official trailers or images so far: the Wolverine cowl. The costume team replicated the character's signature blue-and-yellow mask from the comics. "That's very interesting because of the big wings," Churchyard remarks. "It has to fit the face. We had a few attempts with 3D-printing models and trying them on Hugh before we found something that worked not just with comfort level but worked with any practicality." Churchyard remains mum on when the mask and cowl make an official appearance in the film but remarks, "It is just so cool when it arrives on his head."

"We did that first fitting using the mask for the first time. Very rarely do I ever get total goosebumps in a fitting, but it's actually quite extraordinary to see the whole look," he adds. "Hugh was just beside himself. He probably wonders why he never wore the blue-and-yellow suit before. I have no idea why, but thank God they didn't because now people are just so excited, 24 or so years later, that they're going to now see it for the first time."

Deadpool & Wolverine opens in theaters this Friday.