Hugh Jackman will be seen as Wolverine in X-Men: Days of Future Past, but reveals that his next solo film as the character will most likely be his last.
He’ll be playing a major part as Wolverine in X-Men: Days of Future Past, which will hit theaters May 23. While we know that there will most likely be a third solo film, he seems ready to put the claws up for good.
When speaking with SFX he said, “I haven’t signed on signed on. I’m genuinely at that point where unless it’s better than the last one I’m not going to do it.”
Despite recent reports that The Wolverine 3 will be hitting theaters March 3, 2017, it seems Jackman hasn’t officially signed on. Surprisingly he’s much more interested in finding out whether the script will be interesting enough for himself and his fans.
When SFX asked Jackman where he wanted to see his character go, he said,”I don’t know yet. We’re talking it through. I still am very ambitious for the character. And tonally I feel like we corrected the ship with the last one. But I feel we can still go further, in a way. If I did another one I’m 99.9% sure it would be the last, so that will inform what it is for me.”
So even if he does end up doing another solo Wolverine film he’s 99.9% sure it would be the last. It’s not surprising that the actor would want to move on from the role, but what would that mean for X-Men: Apocalypse?
X-Men: Days of Future Past director Bryan Singer has already started production of X-Men: Apocalypse, the sequel to DOFP, and now that we know Jackman doesn’t have a contract for another solo film it makes us wonder if he’d even be in X-Men: Apocalypse.
For some fans this may be disappointing, but for others it’s a huge relief.
While Hugh Jackman has been an integral part of the X-Men franchise, he’s often seen as a crutch that the film’s writers and directors have leaned on far too often. Even in Days of Future Past we see that his character is being used to promote the film far more than any other character and from what we’ve heard he has more screentime than everyone else combined.
The big question is will Fox want to replace Jackman? We never thought Batman could be replaced so quickly after Christian Bale portrayed the caped crusader for an entire trilogy, but Ben Affleck was cast in the role just a few years after the trilogy ended.
Could we be seeing a new actor playing Wolverine? It’s highly possible considering Wolverine has been Fox’s most popular X-Men property and the only character they’ve made a solo film around.
While there’s been talk of Jennifer Lawrence getting a solo film as her X-Men character Mystique, the chances seem unlikely considering she’s such a hot commodity right now. Like Jackman, she’d probably prefer to pursue other projects instead of being locked into a multi-film contract.
We look forward to finding out more about Hugh Jackman portraying Wolverine in any future X-Men films and hope that Fox looks at it as a way to focus on some of the other characters instead of instantly thinking “reboot.”
Fans can see Jackman as Wolverine in X-Men: Days of Future Past when it hits theaters May 23, 2014.