DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE Star Hugh Jackman Reveals Why He Gave Up Role: "I Was Like, I'm Not Enjoying It"

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE Star Hugh Jackman Reveals Why He Gave Up Role: "I Was Like, I'm Not Enjoying It"

Deadpool & Wolverine star Hugh Jackman has explained why he walked away from the role of Wolverine after 2017's Logan, while Ryan Reynolds reflects on their surprising first meeting. Check it out...

By JoshWilding - May 29, 2024 10:05 AM EST
Filed Under: Deadpool & Wolverine
Source: People

When Hugh Jackman bid farewell to Wolverine in 2017's Logan, it was unclear what 20th Century Fox had planned for the clawed mutant moving forward. 

Had the Disney/Fox merger not happened (and assuming Dark Phoenix didn't bomb), the next X-Men movie would have likely shifted focus to the 2000s. Given Wolverine's popularity, we'd imagine the idea was to recast the role if not there, then definitely somewhere down the line. 

Fortunately, Marvel Studios and Ryan Reynolds managed to convince Jackman to reprise the role for Deadpool & Wolverine. In an interview with People, the actor explained why he walked away from Logan in the first place. 

"I had got to the point probably 10 years ago I was like, I'm not enjoying it. It was hurting. It was tough," Jackman admits. "But I've had a break, and I've been doing a lot of dance. I've been doing stage shows. And so when I came back to it, it was really fun."

Confirming he's not missed a step, Reynolds chimed in to add, "When Hugh Jackman is coming at you at 150 Australian miles per hour, you feel like there's no way you're not going to be dead in four seconds. And I will never forget that. And thank God I'm in a mask, because under the mask my face is going, 'Oh God!'"

Elsewhere in the profile, the Wade Wilson actor looked back on his first meeting with Jackman on the set of 2008's X-Men Origins: Wolverine

"I was blown away. And I was nervous as hell," Reynolds recalls. "I was walking through the trailers, jet-lagged, disoriented, feeling really green and kind of out of my depth, and there was no script to look at. It was just like, what's going to happen?"

"And I heard my name, 'Ryan!' in between these trailers as I was walking. And it was [Hugh]. Just the fact that you knew my name meant so much to me. And you came over, you gave me a big hug and you said, 'Welcome aboard.'"

You can hear more from both Reynolds and Jackman, including the "secret sauce" to the friendship, in the player below.

Shawn Levy directs Deadpool & Wolverine, which stars Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, and Matthew Macfadyen. The movie is written by Ryan Reynolds & Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Zeb Wells & Shawn Levy.

The trades have confirmed that Jennifer Garner will reprise her role as Elektra, with Wesley Snipes, James Marsden, Famke Janssen, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Dafne Keen, Channing Tatum, Blake Lively and, as we mentioned above, even singer Taylor Swift among those rumoured to make an appearance. 

Kevin Feige, Reynolds, Levy and Lauren Shuler Donner produce with Louis D’Esposito, Wendy Jacobson, Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, George Dewey, Simon Kinberg and Jonathon Komack Martin serving as executive producers.

Deadpool & Wolverine arrives in theaters on July 26.

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YouFlopped
YouFlopped - 5/29/2024, 10:37 AM
hope all this PR is factored into that opening weekend 😂

where are the tracking numbers? 🤔
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 5/29/2024, 10:41 AM
@YouFlopped - same thoughts, where are those tracking numbers?

I am monitoring ticket sales in my country as well. Not comparable to oppenheimer (same r rating) so far or even thor 4 or wakanda forever or gotg3 which made decent bank for marvel recently.
YouFlopped
YouFlopped - 5/29/2024, 10:53 AM
@vectorsigma - what methods do you use to track ticket sales?

do you keep reference/notes on trends and past performances? Would love more detail. That’s most definitely talent this site needs.

Thank you!
RegularPoochie
RegularPoochie - 5/29/2024, 11:09 AM
@YouFlopped - Your name will be ironic, when this breaks all the fookin records, lmfao!!!
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 5/29/2024, 11:41 AM
@YouFlopped - That user is probably a less reliable source for BO predictions than your are, lol, good luck getting details of what they base anything on.
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 5/29/2024, 12:20 PM
@YouFlopped - oh, i dont track it in a professional or analytic way. Just overall observations on seat availability and whatnot.

For example, in MoM, it was the first post pandemic marvel movie here (sadly nwh was delayed a month after us release) where it was released normally, usually 2 days before the us.

And i had a really hard time booking tickets, the demand and hype was so high. The ticketing servers went down that i had to arrange stuff through customer service.

With some recent films like barbenheimer and eras tour, same high demand but not panic level like MoM. But the fomo hype of those are something.

So obseeving ticket sales for this, i can say it is still not too hyped. Im not saying it will still be like that nearing release. Things might change especially if more marketing comes out.

So makes me also wonder why tracking is still not available domestically given that tickets are already on sale.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 5/29/2024, 12:52 PM
@YouFlopped - Weren't you actively getting Barbie numbers wrong too and then logged out of your account for months out of embarrassment and shame?
YouFlopped
YouFlopped - 5/29/2024, 1:34 PM
@SonOfAGif - I appreciate your thoughts and opinions toward the topic at hand! Thank you for the engagement twin ❤️🫶🏾
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/29/2024, 2:07 PM
@YouFlopped - Are you still saying that The Marvels and Madame Webb are masterpieces that will never flop or no?
YouFlopped
YouFlopped - 5/29/2024, 2:20 PM
@ObserverIO - The Marvels came out during an industry wide strike with no interviews barely any promotion. Didn’t push its film back like everyone else and still doing better than other films released after the fact 😂 MCU can have 5 more flops like that, cause it’s still 30 films 30 billion 🥱

Madame Webb is beyond a masterpiece. It is a cultural reset. The epicenter of character development that confines that boundless potentiality of comfort food style story telling that binds together the magic of movie making. 💫

I greatly appreciate your contributions to this commentary. Have an incredible day. ❤️🫶🏾
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/29/2024, 2:30 PM
@YouFlopped - "It is a cultural reset" love it, lol.
TheMetaMan
TheMetaMan - 5/29/2024, 10:42 AM
I look forward to the promotional tour for this movie. Red carpet, bbc one (dude with the glasses, forget his name) Graham Norton, Jonathan Ross, This morning, spicy ones lol.
DocSpock
DocSpock - 5/29/2024, 10:58 AM

Everything is riding on this in the MCU.

I don't expect much from this year's crop of D+ crap.

marvel72
marvel72 - 5/29/2024, 12:13 PM
@DocSpock - Gonna be the best movie since Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3 but saying that it wouldn't be hard.
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 5/29/2024, 12:24 PM
@marvel72 - gotg3 was written superbly by Gunn. We were made to care for a raccoon and his friends. Sorry to disagree but I dont think this can outdo that in terms of writing and direction quality
marvel72
marvel72 - 5/29/2024, 5:11 PM
@vectorsigma - I agree Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3 was written to pull on the heartstrings, Deadpool 3 will be written as a fun ride,it might have a scene or two that might be emotional but not to the same level as Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3.
HammerLegFoot
HammerLegFoot - 5/29/2024, 11:16 AM
If Matthew Vaughn had come back to direct the follow up the X-Men First Class he said he was going to cast a new wolverine. I wonder who he would have selected
Superspecialawesomeguy
Superspecialawesomeguy - 5/29/2024, 11:38 AM
@HammerLegFoot - If I remeber correctly, for his own version of DOFP, he wanted Tom Hardy to play a young Wolverine and then take over a as the main version; which would've been pretty cool imo.

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AC1
AC1 - 5/29/2024, 12:33 PM
@HammerLegFoot - I'm glad that never happened, it never made any sense. He said he wanted to cast a "younger" Wolverine for the prequel timeline but we'd already seen Hugh's Wolverine looking the same age multiple times prior to that including his cameo in Vaughn's own First Class.

Fox-Men's continuity was already enough of a mess with things like McAvoy's younger Prof X losing the use of his legs and becoming enemies with Fassbender's younger Magneto over a decade before Stewart's de-aged and completely able-bodied Prof X saved Scott and a bunch of other mutants from Weapon X and then went with a de-aged McKellen Magneto to recruit Jean Grey. We didn't need Wolverine yo-yoing in age and appearance on top of all that 😂
Gambito
Gambito - 5/29/2024, 1:05 PM
@HammerLegFoot - he mentioned Tom Hardy or Taylor Lautner
RegularPoochie
RegularPoochie - 5/29/2024, 11:25 AM
And will you now stop yapping about the mask? It's pretty much clarified in this, lmfao!
Ha1frican
Ha1frican - 5/29/2024, 11:31 AM
Makes sense, seems like he nearly killed himself getting into shape for The Wolverine and Days of Future Past back to back. He looked incredible but that kind of dieting down (and more than likely diuretic and anabolic use) takes a crazy toll on your body especially at his age
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 5/29/2024, 11:40 AM
This press tour is gonna be legendary!!.

I’m pretty sure he mentioned that it got harder to stay in shape as he got older….

Also no matter how much you love a character , you can still get a bit tired of it especially after having played the character for 9 films across 17 years or so at that point in which they were more or less somewhat retreading the same ground.

Now that he has had time away from it and has a new sandbox to play in with Ryan’s Wade , it’s reinvigorated him and you can see it (though he’s always given good performances imo).

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Looking forward to this!!.
PaKent
PaKent - 5/29/2024, 11:55 AM
I wasn't enjoying it, until......User Comment Image
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 5/29/2024, 12:00 PM
Jackman and Reynolds are clearly really good friends in real life. You can tell that Jackman is like the only person Reynolds always praises and speaks directly about, with a lot less sarcasm like he usually does.
RegularPoochie
RegularPoochie - 5/29/2024, 12:13 PM
@HulkisHoly - Yeah, I remember Ryan talking about Jackedman very praisefully and said he's the most good hearted and kind person he's ever met, who puts everyone on the line before himself no matter what and I think he got little teary eyed, if I remember correctly.
Twenty23Three
Twenty23Three - 5/29/2024, 12:00 PM
He came back in the very first film he was offered to less than 10 years from the last. Don’t think that really counts as giving up the role
THEDARKKNIGHT1939
THEDARKKNIGHT1939 - 5/29/2024, 12:10 PM
I really hope there are a lot of Origins references in the movie. It's set up perfectly.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/29/2024, 2:11 PM
@THEDARKKNIGHT1939 - Wouldn't it be awesome if they did a version of the opening of Borigins with the new variant of Wolverine going through his very comic accurate career (fighting Hulk, Alpha Flight, Giant Sized X-Men, meeting Jean, etc all the way up to killing the team and becoming the Old Man Logan variant)?

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