Despite many hints from Hugh Jackman that he would be hanging up his claws after one more Wolverine or X-Men film, he’s finally semi-confirmed it via an Instagram photo of his hands with the metal claws attached.

Update (March 29): Director James Mangold confirms on Twitter that The Wolverine 3 is Hugh Jackman’s final movie as X-Men’s most popular character.

X-Men: Days of Future Past actor Hugh Jackman is loved by pretty much everyone, and his portrayal of Wolverine is really what jump-started the comic book movie craze. But the actor has now confirmed (basically) that whichever film he’s currently working on will be the last time he plays the character. Check out the image and what he had to say below:

Seemingly confirming the end of an era, by posting a shot of his claws, and saying “one last time,” he’s letting us know that we shouldn’t expect him to appear as Wolverine in any future X-Men films. That doesn’t mean Wolverine won’t show up; he just won’t be playing him, which should start a whole lot of discussion in the comic book movie community.

The next Wolverine movie that The Wolverine director James Mangold will direct is supposedly the final movie that Jackman will appear as Wolverine. So, it looks as though he won’t be appearing in X-Men: Apocalypse. Although, a cameo would be easy enough to do while sticking to the “one last time” theory, as he could be filming the scenes back-to-back.

The 46-year-old actor has had an incredible run, and his ability to continue to stay so fit, and look so menacing had to be a testament to his drive. And he’s one of those actors who seems like an incredibly nice guy in general, which was always fun to have around when the X-Men movies were hitting theaters.

For some fans this may be disappointing, but for others it’s very possible that it’s a huge relief due to the fact that he has always been made the center of all the X-Men movies except for X-Men: First Class, which he still had a hilarious cameo in.

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 saw his character being used to promote the film far more than any other character, and he easily had the most screentime by quite a sizeable margin.

The big question is whether Fox wants to replace Jackman soon or not. 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 Bale’s trilogy ended, and all the negative hype has seemed to die down pretty quickly.

Could we be seeing a new actor playing Wolverine in the next few years? 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. We’ll just have to wait and see what Fox does with their properties.

Let us know what you think of Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman hanging up his claws for the last time.