Only one actor has ever portrayed Wolverine in live-action super-cinema and, when one thinks of the popular X-Man, it is this actor’s face and physique alone that comes to mind. Put simply, Hugh Jackman is Wolverine. Sadly, Logan saw the Australian star hang up his claws, seemingly for good.
Jackman’s version of Wolverine was not, however, a perfect copy of the comic book character. Indeed, there are many distinctions to be found between the two. So long an association with the part has left Jackman with plenty of incredible production stories to tell and, through them, some truly wild facts have emerged.
Updated on December 13th, 2022 by Jordan Iacobucci: Hugh Jackman's Wolverine has one more ride left in him, with the surprise announcement of his return alongside Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 3 lighting the Internet ablaze. As fans prepare for Wolverine's long-awaited Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, there are plenty of behind-the-scenes facts that can keep them satiated until Deadpool 3 arrives in theaters in 2024.
Jackman Wasn’t The First Choice For Wolverine
Hard that it is to imagine anyone other than Hugh Jackman in the role of Wolverine, the star very nearly didn’t get the part in Brian Singer’s X-Men. Worse still, he wasn’t actually offered the life-changing part until Russell Crowe had turned it down and suggested him. As much as it made sense for Crowe to recommend the part to an actor who shared Australasian roots, Jackman wasn’t Singer’s second choice either.
Up until three weeks into the film’s production, Dougray Scott was set to play Wolverine. Scott eventually pulled out when the shooting of Mission Impossible II ran too far over the schedule to allow him to move over to X-Men. Jackman was cast and history was made.
Jackman Picked His Successor
Having hung up his claws for good, Jackman is not only insistent that he’ll never reprise the part but has already suggested a replacement. In an interview with MTV News, Jackman said that Tom Hardy should follow him in the part. He’s not the only one behind this idea though, with bookies offering odds as low as 3/1 that Hardy will be the next Wolverine.
That said, the recent success of Venom does seem to rule Hardy out. With Jackman now returning as Wolverine in 2024 and Hardy already portraying a Marvel character in Sony's cinematic universe, it feels unlikely that Marvel would want Hardy playing two of their hottest properties.
He Was A Superhero Record Holder (And Will Be Again)
As it stands, Hugh Jackman shares the world record for starring in the largest number of superhero films as the same character. Christopher Reeve might have managed four back in the day, as Superman, but Jackman racked up a grand total of ten feature film appearances in his Wolverine era. That’s everything from X-Men to X-Men: Origins and The Wolverine to Logan.
Avengers: Endgame saw Robert Downey Jr. equal Jackman’s ten film total – thanks, in part, to cameos in The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man: Homecoming. However, Jackman seems intent on keeping this record for himself, recently announcing his return for his eleventh outing as Wolverine in 2024's Deadpool 3.
Jackman Dug Deep To Be Wolverine
Bringing a hard-as-nails antihero to life was no small task for the so-called nicest man in Hollywood and Jackman would be the first to it that it took him a while to find the character within himself. Among the biggest of Jackman’s concerns was that his character had a large number of complex emotions to express but rarely spoke.
In the process of finding his Wolverine, however, Jackman began to realize that he could take inspiration from his own life experiences. Jackman’s mother left his family when he was only eight years old, stirring within him a heartbreaking sense of anger, isolation and profound fear. Combined, these feelings helped him empathize with Wolverine’s own fictional traumas.
His Wife Didn’t Want Him To Be Wolverine
An actor and producer in her own right, Deborra-Lee Furness married Jackman in 1996. When the role of Wolverine landed on her husband’s desk three years later, however, she advised him against taking it. Deeming the part ‘ridiculous’, Furness told her husband it was a terrible idea after reading just three pages of David Hayter's original X-Men script.
With Jackman’s Wolverine going on to be a huge success and major money spinner, Furness has since itted she was wrong. Not only that, in 2013 Jackman revealed that his Wolverine costume had found its way into the couple’s bedroom for very private use. Her response was that the claws would be better employed in the kitchen, mixing salad.
Jackman Is Way Too Tall For The Role
Believe it or not, when he was first announced as the new Wolverine seventeen years ago, Hugh Jackman was a controversial casting. Measuring over six feet in height, he was simply too tall to be the Wolverine that comic book fans knew and loved. According to the comics, at five foot three, Wolverine is exactly a foot shorter than Jackman.
Undeterred, the X-Men production team came up with a few neat tricks to fool discerning eyes. In some scenes, cast acting alongside Jackson were given platform shoes to reduce his screen presence, whilst shots focussed solely on Wolverine were captured from above for the same effect. In later films, more effort was put into bulking Jackman outwards than downwards.
His Wolverine Is Much Older Than The Comic Book Character
Hugh Jackman was born on 12 October 1968 in Sydney, Australia. James ‘Logan’ Howlett, meanwhile, was born at some point in the early 1880s in northern Alberta, Canada. It goes without saying, then, that Wolverine is just a little bit older than the actor who brought him to life in film.
When it comes to Jackman’s take on Wolverine, compared to the comic book character, there is a much more significant age discrepancy, however. Gavin Hood’s widely discredited X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens in 1845 and finds the character already alive to witness his father’s death. It’s the trauma of this that’s supposed to have triggered his mutation – or perhaps it was the realization that he was born forty years premature that did that.
Wolverine Almost Cameoed In A Very Different Marvel Film
With Disney's takeover of 20th Century Fox, it seems inevitable that, one day not so far away, a new version of Wolverine will wind up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While fans are eagerly awaiting such a day, Wolverine very nearly made a cross-brand appearance back in 2002.
Evidently, Wolverine was, at one stage, all set to cameo in Sam Rami’s first Spider-Man movie. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Jackman revealed that the only thing that stopped the dream collaboration from actually happening was the disappearance of his Wolverine suit. With great suits comes great responsibility and so, without it, the cameo was canceled.
Jackman Is Generous But Very Unlucky
While Jackman’s reputation as being one of the nicest men in Hollywood certainly proceeds him, not everyone knows that he is also one of the most generous. During the production of his Wolverine film outings, Jackman grew into the habit of buying every member of the crew a scratch card on a weekly basis, claiming the exercise was a morale booster.
In spite of the positive atmosphere created by the act, however, Jackman has said that not one of the now thousands of dollars worth of scratch cards that he has bought for film crews over the years has ever drawn a substantial prize.
Clint Eastwood And Mel Gibson Inspired Jackman's Portrayal
It’s not uncommon for film stars trying to ‘find’ the identity of a new role to look back to old, iconic performances. No exception to the rule, that’s exactly what Hugh Jackman did upon being cast as Wolverine. Indeed, he turned to performances by classic Hollywood A-listers Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson as sources.
Specifically, it was Eastwood’s steel cool turn as Dirty Harry that gave Jackman Wolverine’s measured characterization, whilst Gibson’s Mad Max inspired him to take a trip down Fury Road. This wasn’t the first time that Eastwood had inspired the character, of course, with his original illustrators mimicking his gait too. James Mangold was also inspired by his film The Outlaw Josey Wales in the conception of Logan.
