The superhero genre has come quite a long way in the past decade or so. Films that used to function independently are now part of shared cinematic universes, largely thanks to work by Marvel. But it was the X-Men franchise that truly started it all, as Bryan Singer's original superhero flick was first released back in 2000. The film starred a then-newcomer Hugh Jackman, who was understandably nervous while playing Wolverine for the first time. And now it appears that the always delightful Sir Ian McKellen helped Jackman deal with the nerves associated with this task.
Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, and Patrick Stewart recently did an appearance on The Graham Norton Show in order to publicize the highly anticipated Logan. Jackman took this time to thank Ian McKellen for his sage advice on the original X-Men set, saying:
I wanted to say thank you to you for all these years. I'm sure I have. I hope I have. I was very nervous on that first film. I started three weeks in; it was my first movie. And there was a lot going on and a lot of people. And I remember you pulling me aside and saying, 'This at times is going to feel uncomfortable. It's going to feel overwhelming. But you're in good hands and everything's going to be okay.'
Just in case you needed another reason to love Sir Ian McKellen. Despite being busy bringing Magneto to the silver screen for the first time, he made sure to reach out to a green Hugh Jackman as well.
At this point, its hard to imagine Hugh Jackman as a fresh faced newbie on the set of his first major blockbuster. The Australian actor has since built a rather impressive career for himself, having won both Tony and Emmy Awards, as well as earning an Oscar nomination for his role in Les Miserables. But everyone's got to start somewhere; Jackman just started playing an iconic character in a massively popular superhero movie.
This charming story only makes Hugh Jackman's departure from Wolverine even more devastating for fans. As audiences have grown up over the last 17 years, the character of Logan/Wolverine has only continued to expand and grow with us. We've seen Jackman play the role in four sequels, three spinoffs, as well as a few cameos. And with multiple timelines now apart of the canon, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine is essentially the only consistent aspect of the X-Men franchise.
It should be interesting to see where the X-Men universe goes from here. Because in addition to Hugh Jackman's departure, Patrick Stewart just revealed he's done playing Charles Xavier. Hopefully Ian McKellen wasn't peer pressured too bad, and perhaps will bring his Magneto back for another installment.
Logan will hit theaters on March 3, 2017
