Essential Rule for Every Marvel & Star Wars Movie or TV Show

Lightsabers, men in iron suits, far-off galaxies, and emotions displayed as self-sentient beings are all cool, but you know what’s not cool? Smoking. This is a rule that all Disney properties—Marvel and Star Wars included—have stood by for nearly a decade. In 2015, during Disney’s annual shareholder meeting, Disney CEO Bob Iger implemented a smoking ban across all Disney movies to further solidify the company’s family-friendly reputation (via The Independent).

Before this regulation was enforced, 43% of Marvel films featured characters smoking. “We are extending our policy to prohibit smoking in movies across the board: Marvel, Lucas, Pixar, and Disney films,” Iger announced at the meeting. However, he acknowledged that exceptions would be made for historical characters where smoking was a factual element of their lives. “For instance, if we were doing a movie on Abraham Lincoln, he was a smoker, and we would consider that acceptable,” he said. “But in terms of any new characters that are created for any of those films, under any of those labels, we will absolutely prohibit smoking in any of those films.”

This rule brings up interesting questions about characters like Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, who was a well-known smoker before his introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

To consider Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in his usual attire is to envision him in a flannel shirt at a worn-down bar, typically seen with a cigar in his mouth between swigs of whatever he’s drinking. This portrayal aligns with the big-screen version of Wolverine, as Marvel once refused to let Wolverine and other characters smoke following a ruling by then-editor-in-chief Joe Quesada.

With Disney’s long-standing no-smoking rule, the fate of Wolverine’s smoking habit in the Marvel Cinematic Universe remains uncertain. Jackman recently addressed these rumors in an interview with Variety. When asked if it would be Logan’s final appearance in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Jackman responded, “Clearly, this is our first major interview of this press tour. I’m not sure how to answer,” neither confirming nor denying his involvement in future Marvel projects like “Secret Wars.”

If Jackman returns as Wolverine, how will his character adapt to a smoke-free Marvel Cinematic Universe? Will there be efforts to show Wolverine quitting smoking, or might it depend on the context of his involvement in the storyline? For now, fans have to wait and see if Logan opts for a healthier lifestyle as part of his potential journey in the MCU.