At this point, it’s really hard to imagine anyone else playing Wolverine but Hugh Jackman. After all, no matter how crummy some of the X-Men films got over the years (and there were some really, really awful ones, thanks to Gavin Hood and Brett Ratner), he never let us down. Not once. He brought his all with him on every occasion and made sure that Logan remained the best part of each of the movies.
Still, after nine films in the space of 17 years, Jackman is now ready to pass down the adamantium claws. Who will replace him is obviously unknown, and that’s not likely to change for a while, but in an interesting interview with Variety, the actor opened up a bit about his iconic role and revealed his biggest regret from his time playing the X-Men leader.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t not getting the chance to don the yellow spandex. Instead, Jackman says he wishes he’d begun playing Wolvie like he did in Logan right from the start.
“I wish I’d started playing him like that 17 years ago. So there’s some sense of missed opportunity, but when I saw ‘Logan,’ I sat there and I did have tears in my eyes. The main feeling I had was: There, that’s the character. I feel like I’ve done it now. And I was calm and at peace, but I’m going to miss that guy.”
The actor’s comments here make perfect sense, and we can see where he’s coming from when he mentions feeling like it was a “missed opportunity,” but as any fan will tell you, Jackman should have no regrets about his time spent in the role. Without a doubt, his work as Wolverine is amongst the best in the comic book movie genre and no one else could have done what he did with the character.
While there have been whispers of Fox potentially bringing the actor back at some point, it certainly sounds like Jackman’s finished with the franchise for good. And honestly, that’s probably for the best. Returning in the future would only cheapen the events of Logan and given that James Mangold provided Wolverine with the perfect swan song, we think it’s best to just let the character be, don’t you?