Besides for Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark/Iron Man, I can’t think of another actor in Hollywood who so completely embraced his role and made it his own as much as Hugh Jackman has with X-Men‘s Wolverine. The Aussie actor simply is the clawed mutant. But as impossible as it may seem, those claws are about to be hung up.
The stories had been swirling for a while now, and at this year’s Comic-Con, Jackman finally confirmed it publicly: After playing the character of Logan since 2000 and in 7 different movies, the upcoming third Wolverine solo movie would be Jackman’s last jaunt as the character. And while we still know next to nothing about The Wolverine 3, we just got our first teaser image of it, as Jackman tweeted out the following this morning.
My last time putting on the claws. What do you want to see happen? 50 words or less. I’ll read as many as I can. pic.twitter.com/ksA1Gii5tf
— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) July 27, 2015
Although we never saw it, based on descriptions that looks like the image that was actually flashed on-screen during the Comic-Con presentation. During the same presentation, while remarking on how young he looks in a clip showing him being cast for the role way back in 1999, Jackman simply teased “Old man Logan… make of that what you will”. That immediately had some fans frothing at the mouth that The Wolverine 3 would be adapting “Old Man Logan”, the critically acclaimed Mark Millar penned comic book story from 2008. And looking at the numerous responses to Jackman’s tweet, just about everybody still wants to see it.
The problem is that I think Jackman was just playing with the Comic-Con audience, and there’s no intention of adapting Old Man Logan. The story is set in an alternate future after the villains finally banded together and killed off most of the heroes, forcing the rest into hiding, and carving up America in various territories for each of them. The “Old man Logan” we meet here is a pacifist who has hasn’t raised his hand against anybody in years, living like a hermit after some unspeakable tragedy befell him. But when a blind Hawkeye shows up asking for Logan’s seemingly easy help with a cross-country mission, it forces him into the world again to not just confront his past but also perhaps, unwillingly, fixing the world.
The story plays out like Unforgiven: The Super Hero Comic Book and is incredible, but the problem is that it also relies heavily on several characters – like Hawkeye, Hulk, Spider-Man, Red Skull, etc – that Fox do not have the film rights to, which would make an adaptation really, really difficult.
There’s also the issue of us not having a clue just where in the timeline Wolverine 3 will be taking place. With X-Men: Days of Future Past having reset the timeline so that several events from Bryan Singer’s original X-Men Trilogy never happened, it means that the events of The Wolverine no longer fits into continuity. If Wolverine 3 is a direct sequel to the previous film, then I’m just not sure how it would work, and if it’s unrelated to The Wolverine then it could be about anything.
So what would you like to see as Jackman’s swan song as the character? Any particularly famous comic-book story you want to see adapted for Wolverine 3 – I would love to see them tackle “Enemy of the State” – or would you like to see something original? Personally, I just want at least one scene of him in the damn yellow suit! Is that too much to ask?!
The Wolverine‘s James Mangold will once again return to direct the still untitled Wolverine 3, while Michael Green writes the script. The movie is scheduled for release on March 3, 2017.
Last Updated: July 28, 2015
