Hugh Jackman May Not Be Feeling A WOLVERINE Sequel

The Wolverine was released on Blu-Ray this past Tuesday, and while it may not have been the best of the X-Men films, it was fairly decent, and Hugh Jackman continued to shine as Marvel’s most ferocious Canadian. That said, with two Wolverine solo-films on his resume, will Jackman reunite with director Jim Mangold and put out a third one? While talking with Vanity Fair earlier, this week, he stated that he wasn’t sure.

I don’t know whether or not I will do this next movie. I am really proud of this movie and I am excited to develop something with Jim Mangold from the beginning because that is a great ride. That’s exciting, to see what we come up with but I have a very high expectation of what it would need to be [for me to star in it] and if it doesn’t reach those, I won’t be doing it.

According to Jackman, there hasn’t been a script written yet for a third movie, but he and Mangold have been talking on the phone sharing ideas with each other. We’ll next see Jackman as Wolverine next year in X-Men: Days of Future Past when he “phases” back in time to his 1970s body to try to prevent the extinction of the mutant species.

With yesterday’s news about X-Men Apocalypse, I get the feeling that a third Wolverine movie is looking unlikely. Much like how Days of Future Past is being touted as the second-most expensive Fox production, it’s likely that the studio is setting up Apocalypse to be less of a movie and more of an event, similar to The Avengers. Because they’ll be bringing back many of the cast members from Days of Future Past, you can be damn sure that Jackman will once again be the main protagonist. He’s been the main character in all but one of the films, and even in First Class he had a brief cameo. Fox would be crazy not to include Jackman in the next movie; he is, after all, one of the main draws to these films.

So, assuming that he’ll be in X-Men: Apocalypse, the soonest we’d see a third Wolverine film would be in 2018. At that point, Jackman would about 50 years old. Don’t get me wrong, he has done a fantastic job playing Wolverine for over a decade, but unlike the metal-clawed mutant he plays on screen, Jackman is not immortal. I’m surprised he’s gone this long playing the role and still looking like he did when he was 31 in the first X-Men film. Sure, a third Wolverine film would be great, but unless he’s recasted or they do an adaptation of Old Man Logan, it’ll be hard explaining why he’s only starting to age now after 150 years or so.

Or, you know, Jackman could always put his acting career on hold and seek out the Fountain of Youth or the Lazarus Pits. Then we’d get decades more of both Wolverine and Jackman. I know I’d be okay with that.

SOURCE: Vanity Fair