If you’ve thought of Hugh Jackman as the boy who cried Wolfverine, you’d have a point. The actor has said about a trillion times now (ok, two or three times) that this is it for him and “The Wolverine” role. He’s tired of taking cold showers to get angry and in-character for the role. He’s exhausted with the diet and workout he has to extend out for months (lots of all-boiled chicken and weights). Hugh Jackman doesn’t mind playing Wolverine, he’s just isn’t a huge fan of the physical preparation it takes to play him.
After James Mangold’s “The Wolverine: Big In Japan,” Jackman said he was basically done, then he signed up for “X-Men: Days Of Future Past” just a few short months afterwards (and then he had to briefly drop his regimen and then pick it back up). Then he said as much again and then he signed up for “The Wolverine 2” with Mangold in the director’s chair again.
Now Mr. Jackman is threatening to shave, cut off the hair and drop the claws for good once more. And even though “Wolverine 2” (remember everyone pretends that “X-Men Origins: The Wolverine” doesn’t exist anymore, and frankly, a global mindwipe wouldn’t hurt) is set to open in March 2017 and Mangold is returning and a writer has been hired… Jackman’s still not sure that he’s returning in the role of Logan.
“I don’t know yet,” he told SFX. “We’re talking it through. I still am very ambitious for the character. And tonally I feel like we corrected the ship with the last one. But I feel we can still go further, in a way.”
Translation: ‘Origins’ sucked, but “The Wolverine” wasn’t as good as it could have been (oof, that fucking third act), and I’d like to read the actual finished script before I sign on the dotted line. Fair enough, Christopher McQuarrie wrote the original “The Wolverine” script (though, it kinda sucked too to be fair), and Darren Aronofsky was supposed to direct. So what Jackman ultimately got – big in Japan meets mutant villain bonanza in the third act – was probably not what he envisioned after reading those rather awesome Chris Claremont comics.
So, will he or won’t he? “If I did another one I’m 99.9% sure it would be the last, so that will inform what it is for me.” Basically, it better be a good send-off. Does that worry Bryan Singer and Fox for “X-Men: Apocalypse” coming in 2016? No, Singer’s already said that ‘Apocalypse’ will follow the new ‘First Class’ X-Men and not the original crew of Patrick Stewart and company (getting them together for “X-Men: Days Of Future Past” was already a huge logistical nightmare).
Part of Jackman’s problem with playing the character is he thinks he’s too old for it (though surely the fans disagree, and essentially Logan is ageless anyhow). Asked if there are any classic storylines he’d like to pursue for the next one he said,”Well, of course we’re looking at Old Man Logan, because that may be the only option left at this point! [laughs]”
“We are looking at a lot of different storylines,” he continued. “No one has jumped out. You can tell from my answer that we’re still working it out. I’m working with Jim Mangold, which is exciting. Jim came on board ‘The Wolverine’ after Darren [Aronofsky] left, so he inherited it. And of all the things that Jim can do, one of the great things he does is develop scripts. I’m excited to see what we can come up with, but I haven’t signed on signed on. I’m genuinely at that point where unless it’s better than the last one I’m not going to do it.”
Somehow, I still think you’re going to see Hugh Jackman in the Wolverine role come March 2017, because we’ve heard this tune before (and Jackman frankly doesn’t seem to know from good or bad scripts when it comes to his favorite, now bone-clawed mutant).