Wolverine fans “are going to see a fuller, more different side to him than you’ve seen before” in the X-Men movies, Jackman says.
He’s the best there is at what he does — and Wolverine is the best he’s ever been in Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine, according to Hugh Jackman. The 55-year-old actor played the razor-clawed mutant across nine Fox X-Men movies between 2000 and 2017, including the Wolverine trilogy, which ended with Jackman retiring the claws in the James Mangold-directed Logan. But what was intended to be Jackman’s last film as Wolverine was more of an au revoir than adios: as it turns out, Jackman wanted at least one more stab at the character he’s played for 25 years.
Jackman phoned his friend and 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine co-star Ryan Reynolds, who was about to put a pin in Deadpool 3 — the Merc with a Mouth’s first movie to be produced under Disney and Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios. With Jackman now on board for the Deadpool/Wolverine team-up that Reynolds first proposed back in 2016, Feige gave the green light with just one condition: Jackman’s Wolverine finally suits up in the yellow costume.
“I thought I was finished with it seven years ago,” Jackman said during a fan event in Shanghai, China, where Marvel Studios screened 35 minutes of footage for fans. “But as soon as we came up with this idea, I knew that this was the matchup that people wanted, that I wanted, that Ryan wanted, that fans wanted.”
The script — co-written by Reynolds, director Shawn Levy, Zeb Wells, and Deadpool and Deadpool 2 scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick — contains “sides of Wolverine that I’ve never played before, and that challenged me as an actor and excited me,” Jackman added. “I feel in many ways fans of Wolverine — because of Deadpool, because of [Reynolds and Levy], are going to see a fuller, more different side to him than you’ve seen before. And that was thrilling for me, and I hope it is for you.”
Jackman heaped more praise on Reynolds and their mutual collaborator, noting that “what they gave Wolverine is so incredible.” Levy worked with Jackman on 2011’s Real Steel and Reynolds on 2021’s Free Guy and 2022’s The Adam Project, making the trio “the best of friends.”
“The experience of making the movie was also one of the greatest of my career, and I’ve been playing Wolverine for 25 years,” Jackman gushed. “This experience exceeded anything I’ve done before as this character — and in many other movies, in anything. I loved it. And I think it shows on the screen. You can feel the warmth. The movie has a warmth to it, and it’s funny, and it’s irreverent, and the action is crazy. But I think you can feel the friendship.”
The BFFs join the MCU when Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine opens in theaters July 26th.
