Wolverine turned out to be the role of a lifetime for Hugh Jackman, who’s been playing the nigh-invincible X-Man since 2000. In that time, he’s put on Logan’s side burns (and muscle) for nine movies, including James Mangold’s Logan, which opens March 3. It’s been a great run for Jackman, who’s traveled to the past, future, and Japan. But, as he’s so often pointed out in the last couple of years, he’s also more than ready to move on. Logan’s really looking like it will be his swan song, which is something he tells The New York Times he’s perfectly okay with—unless the X-Men movies become Oscar contenders all of a sudden.
The character will go on. Someone else will play it, for sure. [He insisted he was at peace with that] Unless Daniel Day-Lewis plays him and wins the Oscar—then I might have a little problem.
Day-Lewis probably won’t ever be asked to play a new Wolverine, because it’s far more likely that the next time we see the erstwhile James Howlett, it’ll be in a reboot with younger actors. But who knows—maybe 20th Century Fox, which had a change of heart about this whole R-rated X-Men movie thing, will want to stick with the older, more distinguished version.