Four years ago, Hugh Jackman wrapped his nearly two decade-long tenure as Wolverine with Logan, and in the coming years, a new X-Men era will unfold in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, thanks to the Disney+ series Loki, the multiverse has been opened to the MCU, so even though things ended pretty definitely for Jackman’s Wolverine in the Fox film series, another version of the character could easily exist in another universe. That said, evidently we shouldn’t get our hopes up of seeing Jackman play any kind of Wolverine again.
While speaking with ReelBlend co-host Jake Hamilton about his new movie Reminiscence, Hugh Jackman was asked if there was a story angle/pitch “under that multiverse umbrella” that could convince him to reprise Wolverine. Jackman responded:
That fact that I’m hearing about this from you, and there’s nothing in my inbox from Kevin Feige means it’s probably, no matter what idea I came up with, not on the table. Let’s just be clear. I realized, before we shot Logan, I was like, we got the idea. We knew what it was going to be-ish, right? And I thought this is it. And that really helped me, it really helped knowing I was going into my last season, that it was my last season that I made the most of it. And it’s still a character I hold close to my heart. But I know it’s done. Tell that to whoever you want. Please tell it to Ryan [Reynolds]. Because he’s like, doesn’t believe anything, he thinks I’m joking, please.
So even though there’s a scenario where Hugh Jackman could play a Wolverine who (SPOILER ALERT for Logan) isn’t dead and is still slicing up bad guys with his adamanitum claws, the actor isn’t interested. He knew Logan would be his final hurrah as the character, so he gave it his all for that ninth Wolverine outing (which includes his X-Men: First Class cameo) and is comfortable keeping that chapter of his career in the past. More importantly, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige hasn’t even contacted Jackman about another Wolverine outing, and you can be sure Feige would let Jackman know personally if he wanted to bring him into the MCU.
So as Hugh Jackman noted at the end of the above quote, someone will need to let Ryan Reynolds know that this version of Wolverine is not returning in any form… seriously! Although Jackman and Reynolds are still keeping their faux feud going, the latter has also frequently said how he wants to make a proper Wolverine/Deadpool movie since X-Men Origins: Wolverine just didn’t cut it. Alas, this is truly off the table, so as Reynolds will eventually have to make peace with that as he prepares to reprise the Merc with the Mouth for Deadpool 3.
Now all this isn’t to say that we’ll never see a Wolverine on the big screen again. Quite the opposite, as once the new cinematic X-Men are introduced to the MCU, it’s a good bet that Wolverine will be part of that lineup. And as we saw in Loki, variants of an individual can look different from one another, so maybe we could see an alternate version of specifically Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, but played by a different actor. Whatever the case, Jackman has closed the book on Wolverine, no matter what reality he hails from.
For those of you who enjoy all aspects of Hugh Jackman’s career, you can see him in Reminiscence when it premiere in theaters and on HBO Max August 20. And for those of you who want to see more of the Marvel multiverse, we’ll be getting that when Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness come out on December 17 and March 25, 2022, respectively.
