Jennifer Garner Sets Elektra Return After Nearly 20 Years in ‘Deadpool 3’

Teeing up an inevitable sai-ke pun for Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Garner is set to reprise her role as the sai-wielding superhero Elektra in Marvel Studios Deadpool 3.

Hugh Jackman is also reprising his performance as Wolverine for the movie, which is rapidly becoming a multiverse mash-up of bygone non-MCU Marvel movie characters. Garner first originated the role of Elektra Natchios in 2003s Daredevil with Ben Affleck, which was a modest hit, and returned to headline 2005s Elektra, which flopped.

In 2021, Garner told the Hollywood Reporter that she wished both of those films had been produced by Kevin Feige as a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its such a shame, honestly, because once Kevin took over everything there was elevated: the writing, the direction, the comedy inside of the stories they were telling, she said. And I did not have that experience. Most recently, Garner starred in and executive produced the limited series The Last Thing He Told Me for Apple TV+.

Shawn Levy, who just directed Reynolds and Garner in 2022s The Adam Project, is helming the film, from a script by franchise mainstays Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Matthew Macfadyen (Succession) is also joining the cast, and Morena Baccarin, Karan Soni, Brianna Hildebrand and Leslie Uggams are returning from the previous two Deadpool films, which were made by 20th Century Fox prior to Disneys acquisition of the studio. Deadpool 3 will also be Marvel Studios first R-rated feature, in keeping with the franchises DGAF approach to superhero storytelling. Its current scheduled to open on May 3, 2024.

Marvel did not respond to requests for comment.