Dafne Keen is instantly the talk of the town after the final trailer of Deadpool & Wolverine confirms her return as Laura Kinney, aka X-23, following much speculation and rumors. The Star Wars: The Acolyte always denied involvement in the threequel whenever asked about her possible return. As this is the same thing Andrew Garfield did when questioned about his part in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Keen called the actor the “master” at keeping her Deadpool 3 cameo a secret.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Keen finally breaks her silence about her epic comeback in Deadpool & Wolverine seven years after James Mangold’s 2017 Logan. But though keeping a big secret like this isn’t easy, considering she knows she will be asked about it while promoting her latest TV series, The Acolyte, the Spanish actress had a “great time” doing it.
“I had a great time keeping it secret. I had to do a bunch of press for a job that I just finished,” she said, referring to the recently concluded Disney+ series. “I got asked in every interview, and I just got to lie, which was really funny.”
She then credits Garfield with being her inspiration in keeping her return a secret after he did the same thing to hide his reappearance as Spider-Man in No Way Home following his two The Amazing Spider-Man films. Like Keen, the actor was often asked if he would appear in the 2021 Jon Watts blockbuster as a variant of the Friendly Neighborhood superhero. After constantly denying the assumptions, he ended up playing a major part in the movie alongside the original Spider-Man actor Tobey Maguire, proving he was great at keeping secrets.
“All the inspo comes from Andrew Garfield,” she continued. “He is the master at this.”
Dafne Keen Shares Her Preparation for Returning as X-23 in Deadpool & Wolverine
Before Keen learned she would be part of Deadpool & Wolverine, her agent was negotiating for a month in secret for her part. So, when she received the call, she couldn’t help but be surprised that she ended up dropping her phone in the bath.
“I immediately screamed,” she revealed. “I dropped my phone in the bath. I had to put it in rice; it was a whole thing.”
However, she also admitted to starting to freak out after realizing she was only a kid when she first played the feral surrogate daughter of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). So, as a preparation, she rewatched Logan and tried to remember everything she did back then.
“We went straight into this pretty intense scene. I know I was freaking out,” she added, hinting at her action scene in the threequel. “As soon as they said, 'Rolling!' I really felt like we were back doing Logan. It was like eight years hadn't passed.”
Evidently, after initially playing the role at 11, fans are about to see a grown-up X-23 in Deadpool & Wolverine. This time, she’s older, wiser, and even speaking, though she has a Spanish accent, knowing she grew up in Madrid.
“Laura has now been around a lot of English-speaking people, so she has a neutral accent every so often. She spats a little bit in Spanish, obviously,” she continued. “I had to include that.”
X-23 Will Know How Much Logan Means to Her in Deadpool & Wolverine
In Logan, X-23 blamed her father for being miserable despite not knowing her existence. Now that she is all grown up, she will have a deeper understanding of where Logan was in his life during the events of the 2017 film.
It was wonderful to come back to that and explore that as a grownup, now understanding parental rage so much more and bringing that to the table for her. I found that Laura in Logan stumbled into having a dad and then having lost her dad. We find her again really knowing how to appreciate — and with this kind of wiseness to her — how much her father means to her.
However, fans will still see a physical and feral Laura this time. Though it has been years since she first portrayed the role, Keen still found X-23 in her, and she will definitely be back in Deadpool & Wolverine.
“The first thing I did for Deadpool was stunt training before I shot anything. I put on the costume and was like, ‘Oh! She's back,’” she teased.
Now that the speculations are over and Keen is already confirmed to return in Deadpool & Wolverine, fans must see her dynamics with Logan seven years after Logan. Viewers should be on the lookout for more cameos, too, as she may not only be the rumored major X-Men character to return.
Deadpool & Wolverine is set to hit theaters on July 26.
