Hugh Jackman may be happy to leave Wolverine in the past, but that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily finished with comic book movies altogether, declaring in an interview with MTV that he’d be open to returning to the genre as a different superhero.
After last year’s Logan finally gave some closure to the character, it’s understandable that the Australian actor would be feeling reluctant to wield the adamantium claws once more, but when the star was asked if he’d consider playing another comic book character, perhaps even one in the DC franchise, Jackman seemed a lot less hesitant.
“Oh yeah, I’d be open to that,” Jackman told MTV. “Yeah, for sure. I mean…for me I never saw it as a superhero, even when I got Logan and I didn’t know much about the X-Men series or comic book series, I was like ‘these are great characters’. All of these people are flawed characters. Sure they have extraordinary abilities, right, but they are all really flawed, and that’s what the movie’s about. That’s why people relate to it.”
Indeed, when the actor first assumed his most famous role in 2000’s X-Men, superhero cinema was in a very different era, where films of its ilk were a lot more hesitant about embracing their comic book origins. Since then, however, the genre has grown into a dominating presence in Hollywood, and Jackman sounds excited to see where things go from here:
“There’s a wish fulfillment of ‘I wish I had claws’ but ultimately I’m like yeah, I know what it’s like to be marginalized. I know what it’s like not to be taken seriously or misunderstood. If only I had the bloody claws, so I see why they’re being so successful and I’ve kind of been blown away. It certainly exceeded every expectation. They are getting better, better, and better.”
Could Jackman himself be a part of this bright future he paints? That remains to be seen, but in the meantime, the X-Men property seems on the brink of some major changes thanks to the impending Disney/Fox deal. From the look of things, a reboot for this mutant saga is most likely on the cards, in which case, Jackman has already given his blessing for someone else to inherit the character of Wolverine.
In fact, if the star ever lands a superhero role in the MCU, then we could even have the surreal experience of seeing Jackman perform opposite a new version of Logan. Granted, that’s just a fantasy for now, but surely Marvel Studios needs to find some way of topping the meeting of two Sherlocks in Avengers: Infinity War.
