Hugh Jackman isn’t done with Wolverine. The actor’s time donning the claws was officially over with Logan (2017), which killed the character off and gave him about as fitting a farewell as possible. That remained the status quo for several years, with Jackman shooting down ideas of a potential return, but all that changed thanks to Deadpool & Wolverine. Ryan Reynolds convinced the actor to return, thanks to some multiversal shenanigans, and it proved to be a huge success as the movie grossed over $1 billion at the box office.
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A year and a half on from that movie’s release, there has been plenty of talk about Jackman’s Wolverine future. Deadpool & Wolverine‘s ending certainly left it possible, rather than what felt like the more definitive conclusion to Logan. And more pertinently, there’s the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, which will bring back several other X-Men actors, including Patrick Stewart as Professor X and Ian McKellen as Magneto. Will Jackman be among them? Officially, he’s not confirmed. But speaking with Cynthia Erivo for Variety‘s Actors on Actors, when asked if he’s done with Wolverine, he said:
“It doesn’t feel like the end. It really felt like the end after Logan. Actually, I needed to claim it as the end, because I really believed in some things that I wanted that movie to be, and I had to fight for them. I had to say, ‘This is the last time I’m doing it.’ Then when I saw Deadpool, I was like, ‘Oh. I see 48 Hrs. I see Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte.’ But I would shove it down. ‘I’ve told everyone that I’m done. I’m not one of those guys.’ Then I went, ‘You know what? I change my mind. It’s not that big of a deal. I’m not even gonna say I’m sorry.’ And it was so awesome.”
Hugh Jackman’s MCU Return Is Inevitable – But When Will It Happen?
Even before Jackman’s latest comments, it seemed a dead certainty that he would reprise his role as Wolverine at least one more time. In the modern era of superhero cinema, where nostalgia and cameos make movies into events, just about everyone and anyone returns. Aside from the myriad X-Men actors coming back for Doomsday, we’ve also seen Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield return for Spider-Man: No Way Home, and both are rumored to be in Secret Wars as well.
Jackman saying that it doesn’t feel like the end essentially confirms he will be back as Wolverine at some point, so it’s seemingly just a matter of when, not if. With his fellow X-Men already returning, having Wolverine turn up would make sense, and it’s widely expected there will be another round of casting announcements for Doomsday at some point (with or without the chairs). Of course, with the X-Men revealed, it might be the case that they’re saving Wolverine for later and will have the payoff of him in Secret Wars instead.
Even that may not necessarily be the end, though. Secret Wars is expected to reset the MCU, and also help set up Marvel’s relaunch of the X-Men on the big screen. New actors for the mutants will obviously be a part of that, but a meshing of timelines and universes would also mean that some could stick around for longer, if they so desired. Recasting Wolverine is one of the MCU’s biggest challenges when it comes to the X-Men, which only gets more difficult the more Jackman stays in the role, so it wouldn’t be a massive shock if he were still present in Phase 7. However long he’s around, though, what seems guaranteed is that he will be back.
Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 18th, 2026. Avengers: Secret Wars follows on December 17th, 2027.
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