Today (March 3rd) marks three years exactly since Fox’s Logan first entered theaters. At this stage, the studio’s X-Men franchise may be all but over, but the third Wolverine standalone film remains possibly the crowning jewel in the 20-year spanning universe, offering a unique, gritty, emotional portrait of the mutant world and arguably sporting Hugh Jackman’s finest – and final – performance as the eponymous Adamantium anti-hero.
The man himself has taken to social media today to mark the special occasion, too, as the Australian actor shared a range of little-seen promo images of himself in character as Wolverine. I’d say “in costume,” but there’s not really a whole lot of costume involved here.
“3 years ago … on this day. LOGAN was released,” Jackman wrote in his caption, before reflecting on playing the character. “#thankyou for the many (and I really mean MANY) years of sweat, steamed chicken and, the role of a lifetime!”
It looked like Fox’s plan was to continue the Wolverine brand with Logan’s daughter Laura AKA X-23, as director James Mangold was once attached to a spinoff film. However, now that Marvel Studios is set to reboot the X-Men, we’re surely in for a recast version of Logan instead.
Good luck finding the right person for the job, though, as – like the star reminds us in this post – Jackman embodied the role for almost two decades, making him the longest-running big-screen superhero to date. He’s now indelibly connected to the character, so it won’t be easy to replace him.
Many names have been suggested by fans, though – everyone from Daniel Radcliffe to Keanu Reeves to Charlie Hunnam. A recent report even says Henry Cavill could be in with a shot of landing it, but we’ll just have to wait and see how that plays out.
Before a new Wolverine is found, though, Marvel has to release Fox’s final X-Men movie, as The New Mutants at last hits cinemas in one month’s time, on April 3rd.
