Hugh Jackman comes to terms with someone else playing Wolverine

Over the past 20 years, Hugh Jackman has turned Wolverine of the X-Men into a movie icon (he was already a comics icon). Jackman started playing the character in X-Men, which came out way back in the year 2000, and put a bow on the performance in 2017 with Logan. [T]his July will be the 20th year in release. That’s crazy,” he mused to The Daily Beast. “But I had no idea about any of that. I did a casting call that thousands of people did around the world…I never thought I was getting the part. I had no idea it was going to happen.”

And it was a near thing. The part actually went to another actor, Dougray Scott, but he had to pull out to work on Mission: Impossible 2. And Russell Crowe was offered the part, but he turned it down. (Jackman also got the lead part in Australia after Crowe turned it down. “He’s been very good to me, Russ.”) But hey, it’s their loss. Jackman’s turn as Wolverine launched him into super-stardom, and he’ll forever be associated with the character.

That said, all things must come to an end. Jackman confirmed to The Daily Beast that he won’t play Wolverine again, and now that Disney has bought 20th Century Fox, which owns the movie rights to X-Men, it’s very likely we’ll see another actor playing the character before too long.

“Honestly…if seven years ago that had happened I’d be like, ‘Oh yeah! but I knew it was the right time for me to leave the party—not just for me, but for the character,” Jackman said. “Somebody else will pick it up and run with it. It’s too good of a character not to. It’s kind of like, you’re on your way home and your friend rings you and goes, Oh, dude, a new DJ just came on and the music is awesome, are you going to come back? And you say, Sounds good but… no. They’re fine with someone else.”

Whoever plays Wolverine next will likely become a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — Disney can do that now that the X-Men and the rest of Marvel characters are finally under the same roof.

Jackman also touched on a couple other topics, such as how he turned down a role in the much-maligned Cats movie and the origins of his long-running prank war with Ryan Reynolds. “God, this is a classic sign where your feud has gone too long, where you don’t even know why or how it started!” he laughed. “I met him back on [Wolverine: Origins], and I used to ream him because I was very close friends with Scarlett [Johansson], and Scarlett had just married Ryan, so when he came on set I was like, ‘Hey, you better be on your best behavior here, pal, because I’m watching,’ and we started ribbing each other that way, and then it all escalated with the Deadpool thing and him calling me out, and trying to manipulate me through social media to do what he wanted.

His time as Wolverine may be over, but hopefully that tradition continues on for a while yet.

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h/t IndieWire