Dafne Keen stuns as X-23 in jaw-dropping Deadpool 3 concept art

Dafne Keen has spent the past decade enjoying a great deal of success and it all started with her role as Laura Kinney, a.k.a. X-23, in Logan. A young woman created from Wolverine's DNA, the character became an adoptive daughter for Logan, with the chemistry between Keen and Hugh Jackman being one of the many high points of the 2017 film.

Fans had been hoping that she might return in a future installment of the Fox X-Men saga, but that couldn't happen as the franchise shortly came to an end after Disney acquired Fox. She has since gone on to star in His Dark Materials and most recently appeared in Disney Plus' Star Wars series The Acolyte. And yet fans continue to hope that she could return to the role of X-23, mainly because it stands the best chance of happening now.

Deadpool and Wolverine comes out this summer, bringing Ryan Reynolds' Merc With A Mouth into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, while also bringing back Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. There is also an endless amount of potential for cameos from the X-Men franchise, with multiple already confirmed. And as a result of that, Marvel fans have been hoping that Keen might return for a cameo appearance to bring Laura Kinney into the MCU.

This is something that digital artist diamonddead has brought to life in the form of an amazing piece of artwork that imagines what Dafne Keen could look like if she returned to the role of X-23 in Deadpool and Wolverine.

Deadpool and Wolverine fan art imagines what an X-23 comeback could look like

This epic fan art from diamonddead reimagines X-23 as a part of the MCU in Deadpool and Wolverine. It features a more grown-up look for the character, using a more modern image of Dafne Keen for reference, while the character sports an all-black attire. The centerpiece of the artwork is, of course, Laura Kinney's two signature adamantium claws.

With the all-black outfit, the fan art is certainly comic-accurate (in terms of her non-Wolverine suit), but what's pretty ironic is that this is a look that also feels like it would have worked for the character if the Fox X-Men saga had continued. That franchise notoriously opted against comic-accurate (and, well, colorful) suits, with the majority of the X-Men donning all-black attire. Some characters had more recognizable attire than others (Magneto's suit, particularly in the prequel series, was pretty comic-accurate) while others, like Wolverine, never got the chance to don their signature looks from the source material.

X-23's suit, however, falls somewhere in between, being more subtle than the traditional X-Men suits - subtle enough to work with the more subdued suits of the Fox franchise. But now that Laura Kinney has become Wolverine in the comics, she dons the brown and yellow suit (complete with the iconic mask) regularly, which has left fans hoping that we could see a version of that look in Deadpool and Wolverine should she appear.

X-23 is rumored to appear in Deadpool and Wolverine

Ever since it became clear that Deadpool 3 would feature Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine (and a truck load of Marvel cameos), Dafne Keen's name has constantly come up in fan discussions as another potential returnee in the film. Those aren't the only conversations it has come up in either, as a number of reports have suggested that she will indeed appear, with multiple Marvel insiders and scoopers also claiming that she will have some kind of role.

Keen herself was recently asked about the possibility of appearing in Deadpool and Wolverine by On Demand Entertaiment when promoting The Acolyte and she denied the rumors, stating that she "loves Hugh" and that "it would have been amazing to be part of it" but that she will be going to see it as a fan instead. Fans, however, aren't totally convinced that is the case, with many believing that she is simply taking the Andrew Garfield approach of vehemently denying your involvement in a Marvel project, only to actually appear in the finished product (Garfield played a major role in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home after publicly denying any involvement many, many times).

The scoopers are still sure of the fact that she will appear, too, with Rejected Scooper reassuring fans that she is "still in the film" and that her scenes haven't been cut.

As for what kind of role she would play in the production, the running theory is that she will be one of the many characters that Wade Wilson and Logan encounter in The Void and that she would bond with the latter by telling him the story of her Logan, who sacrificed himself for her. This would imply that the version of Laura that we could potentially meet in the MCU movie would be the same version that appeared in Logan.

Of course, those are just rumors and we'll have to wait and see if Dafne Keen does actually appear in Deadpool and Wolverine, but given that literally anything could happen in this film - especially when it comes to the Fox Marvel movies - there is a pretty high likelihood of some kind of appearance. And if she does indeed don one of the character's comic-accurate suits like the amazing fan art above showcases, that would be the icing on the cake.