Sneaky Marvel Easter Egg Found Hiding In The Greatest Showman

James Mangold's Easter egg game is apparently every bit as fierce as Wolverine himself. 

It seems that after stocking his masterful superhero flick Logan with an overflowing basket of winking nods and knowing allusions to all things X-Men and Wolverine, Mangold saved one of his best Wolverine Easter eggs for a decidedly less mutant-centric flick: 2017's musical circus drama The Greatest Showman. The film hit theaters just months after Logan, and found Hugh Jackman – a.k.a. Wolverine himself — trading in his bloodied adamantium claws and mutton chop sideburns for a close shave, a snazzy top hat, and an relentless wave of show-stopping musical numbers. 

Mangold served as executive producer (and helped out with reshoots) on The Greatest Showman, and it appears he wasn't entirely done with Wolverine when the Jackman-fronted musical headed into post production, as there's a slick nod to his and Jackman's work on Logan and The Wolverine in The Greatest Showman's opening credits. A particularly eagle-eyed Reddit user found the sneaky Easter egg: the rustic-styled framing in the corner of the screen on Mangold's credit actually features an image of Wolverine with his arms folded and claws extended. 

You can see those muscly arms and dangerous claws for yourself in the images below. But just in case you're not making out those claws, we've taken the liberty of circling them in the second picture — you're welcome.

In a suitably clever turn of events, it seems the Greatest Showman team tried to hide this particular Easter egg by leaving Wolverine's (and thus Jackman's) face out of the image and replacing it with an actual Easter egg. Not for nothing, but we're totally giving an A-plus grade to the film's crew for their work on this one — to the savvy Reddit user for finding it.  

Anytime any sort of connection between Hugh Jackman and Wolverine comes up, it inexorably leads one to ponder whether or not Jackman will ever go full "claw city" on the big screen again. That question has gained particular relevance in the past couple of years — not only because of the surprising success of Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool movies, but also because Disney has recently bought up all things 20th Century Fox, including the studio's coveted X-Men properties. 

Regarding that second bit of info, Marvel Entertainment chief creative officer Kevin Feige has already confirmed that the X-Men are eventually headed to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He's also stated that the mutants won't make their MCU debut for "a very long time," and offered no details about when or how they will be introduced. With Feige and Team Marvel having already plotted out most of the films and shows they'll be releasing through Phase 4 and Phase 5 of the MCU, which will presumably carry through to November 2023, it's getting harder and harder to find a legit slot for Professor X and his merry band of mutants to make an appearance prior to 2024 or later. 

As it happens, that may be for the best, as it'll give audiences ample time to rinse the sour taste of this year's doleful X-Men: Dark Phoenix out of their mouths. But given Jackman's assertion that he's too old to keep playing Wolverine and that he was told he should "leave the party before it gets too late," the notion of him reprising the role for a new X-Men movie four or five years down the road seems sort of ridiculous — which is why Feige is reportedly looking to select a younger actor to take the Wolverine mantle when Marvel inevitably reboots the X-Men franchise. 

Regarding the possibility of Jackman's Wolverine making an appearance in Reynolds' X-Men adjacent Deadpool flicks, well, said appearance has sort of already happened via the riotous end-credits scene in Deadpool 2. Fans will recall that Jackman didn't actually shoot new scenes for that cameo; rather, the Deadpool creative team used old footage from the forgettable X-Men Origins: Wolverine flick to make the moment happen. Still, the scene left fans clamoring to see Jackman and Reynolds facing off in a Deadpool movie — if only because the Merc with a Mouth has frequently tangled (and tangoed) with Logan in the pages of Marvel comics.e

While it's becoming increasingly clear that Jackman won't be a part of any Deadpool-Wolverine showdown in the future, there's growing questions as to whether Reynolds will be either. It should be noted that the Deadpool character was also part of Disney's acquisition of Fox — so while Deadpool 3 is still likely to happen, the fact that Wade Wilson is now part of Marvel (and presumably the MCU), there's a lot of uncertainty around what that third Deadpool film will actually be, let alone when we'll actually get to see it. Either way, it's unknown if Reynolds will appear as Wade Wilson after that third movie, and it's all but certain that Wolverine in any iteration won't be in on the foul-mouthed action. 

All those intriguing Wolverine-MCU threads aside, the fact remains that Logan and its teary, pitch-perfect ending remains a solemn but brilliant goodbye to Jackman's time as Wolverine. So much so that the thought of the beloved actor coming back to the role for any sort of big-screen adventure in the future would feel like a monumental cheat. For his part, Jackman has remained steadfast about his desire to leave the role behind. And while the actor remains intrigued at the prospect of a Deadpool MCU appearance, in his own words, it seems "the ship has sailed" in regards to his days as Wolverine. At least we have a bundle of movies and this sweet Greatest Showman Easter egg to remember him by.