Yesterday – May 13th – was the first ever X-Men Day, a day for X-fans to share what they most love about the Children of the Atom as well as a clever marketing plot for Fox (or Disney) to ramp up the promotion for next month’s Dark Phoenix. Impressively, they managed to bring together stars past and present from the franchise, including Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Shawn Ashmore and others, to record some featurettes reflecting on the movies.
Hugh Jackman didn’t take part in these, but the man most known as Wolverine did take time out of his Monday to celebrate X-Men Day by sharing an image of his iconic character on Twitter. The Australian actor posted it with the caption: “Role of a lifetime.”
Role of a lifetime. #XMenDay pic.twitter.com/0PgULUK4pE
— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) May 13, 2019
Jackman’s always been proud of his tenure playing one of Marvel’s most beloved heroes, but at the same time he’s remained resolute in recent years that he won’t be returning as Logan in any capacity in the future. No matter how much Ryan Reynolds pesters him about someday teaming up with Deadpool. Not even the prospect of joining the MCU can convince him.
That’s fair enough, of course, as Jackman led the X-Men franchise as the adamantium anti-hero for 17 years. He’s allowed to move on to new career challenges and we’d hate for him to continue if his heart wasn’t in it. At least, having vacated the role after Logan, he seems to retained a love for the character and the X-Men world.
Going forward, the likelihood is that Marvel will recast the part. Various names have been suggested by fans, such as Zac Efron or Daniel Radcliffe, but it’s far too early for anything official, as Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has said it’s going to be another five years before the X-Men are folded into the MCU, following the Disney-Fox merger.
Until then, be sure to catch Dark Phoenix – like X-Men: The Last Stand but without Wolverine – in cinemas from June 7th.
