The Beginning of the End?

Hugh Jackman has played Marvel’s Wolverine for eighteen years  since Logan came out in 2017. He appeared briefly in X-Men: Apocalypse in a story set in the early 70’s before he got his admantium skeleton or was officially part of the team. “Logan” was his last contracted movie with Fox Studios.

Old Men and Retirement

Logan was to be based on “Old Man Logan” which is in the future in a post-apocalyptic world (not created by Apocalypse, by the way) where superheroes are outlawed and super villains have divided up the country. At the end of the 6-part story Old Man Logan is coaxed out of retirement as a hero and picks up the Wolverine mantle again. To many other Marvel characters not licensed by Fox made this story impossible. That was Jackman’s last appearance as Wolverine. He says he is ready to move on.

Is he? Wolverine was his first Hollywood role and has been good for him. If he’s ready for “something else” what do you call the nearly two other movies per year since that he has been doing? He’s done everything from sci-fi, to drama, to romance, to Broadway musical turned movie. What “something else” is there to do in Hollywood? Direct? Produce? Retire? Maybe, like Logan, he will have a change of heart  Or . . .

A Bigger Plan

I think Hugh Jackman, and it is my hope that this is part of a plan to get something bigger, is a smarter man who has no intention of giving up his first truly great role. He expressed interest a few years ago about Wolverine taking on Iron Man. And for years in Hollywood this was impossible. Marvel Studios owned rights to Iron Man and the Avengers. 20th Century Fox Studios owned the right to Wolverine and the X-Men and NEVER the twain shall meet. Fox would never consent to giving up an ounce of its blockbuster making superhero, not even for a cameo in the Marvel films.

A Bigger Prize

So, hell froze over. A shrewd Disney negotiator made an agreement with Fox and the world changed. Something once thought impossible, is now only years from materializing: X-Men and Avengers sharing the screen. A win-win for the studios, a win-win for fans, a win-win for Jackman who could indeed reprise that role. For OMG the unthinkable: the Canadian wilderness battle of the century against Wendego and the Incredible Hulk! A very shrewd negotiator could get this dream done.

All Is Not Lost

But let’s say, just for argument sake, it’s not the beginning of the world’s greatest bluff but that Jackman really does want to retire. Is Wolverine done too? Why? I know the PERFECT actor to take on the role of the berzerker Canadian.

Antony Starr, who a few years back, plays sheriff Lucas Hood in the Cinemax series Banshee. He is a dead ringer for Jackman. He is an awesome actor already used to the kind of action that would be required of the role. Future X-Men and Wolverine movies would continue without skipping a beat, or deneying an image already ingrained in most minds. I do confess, I hope against hope that Jackman is indeed a smarter man than Wolverine and that he still wants to make his mark on this world (at least in the Canadian wilderness).