When Hugh Jackman sheathed his claws and stepped away from playing Wolverine after 17 years, X-Man fans still found it hard to believe he wouldn’t be back after Logan. Well, eager fans briefly had reason to believe Disney’s possible purchase of $60 billion in Fox assets, which would bring the rights to the X-Men back to Marvel, might’ve been enough to convince Jackman to play Wolverine once more, this time opposite the Avengers.
But, nope. Not even the combined might of the Avengers can get Hugh Jackman to play Wolverine again.
That brief, false bit of hope stems from an interview Jackman did with Screenrant that came out shortly before Logan came out. In it, Jackman said he would’ve reconsidered saying farewell to Wolverine if it would’ve been possible for him to hang out with the Avengers. Here’s Jackman in February:
If that was on the table when I made my decision, it certainly would have made me pause. That’s for sure. Because I always love the idea of him within that dynamic, with the Hulk obviously, with Iron Man but there’s a lot of smarter people with MBAs who can’t figure that out [Laughter]. You never know… It just feels like this is the right time [to leave the character].
Although Jackman’s still enticed by the idea of getting to join the Avengers, he appears to have finally put Wolverine to rest. While speaking to Collider as part of the press junket for his upcoming P.T. Barnum biopic The Greatest Showman, the actor admitted that “the ship has sailed.”
It’s interesting because for the whole 17 years I kept thinking that would be so great, like I would love to see, particularly, Iron Man and the Hulk and Wolverine together. And every time I saw an Avengers movie I could just see Wolverine in the middle of all of them like punching them all on the head. But it was like, “Oh well, that’s not gonna happen,” and it was interesting just when I first saw that headline — it was just the possibility of it and who knows what’s gonna happen, obviously — I was like, “Hang on!” But I think, unfortunately, the ship has sailed for me, but for someone else I would like to see Wolverine in there.
Jackson’s comments should finally put to rest any hope that we’ll see him as Wolverine in a Marvel or X-Men movie in the near future, because if the Avengers isn’t enough to bring him back, chances are nothing is.
The rumored Fox and Disney merger is a complex and ominous bit of media consolidation, so it’s probably best not to get too excited about it, even if there is a chance that a non-Jackman Wolverine could fight with the Hulk.
Oh, and The Greatest Showman comes out on December 20.
