Hugh Jackman may have his reasons for reprising the role of Wolverine despite hanging up his claws 7 years ago, but now that he’s here – he better stay for a while.

With an extensive Broadway presence, a Tony-winning performance, and such impressive movies as Prisoners and Les Misérables, Hugh Jackman is 1 Oscar away from achieving the elite EGOT status. But the actor’s career may very well be defined by his 9-movie run as Wolverine over the course of 24 years.

A singular role that no one believed he was cut out for, the Australian actor left such an enduring mark on the character and the Foxverse X-Men franchise, that the comic book IP now remains forever synonymous with his name.

After all, fans all over the world collectively nodded in agreement when Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool blatantly declared, “You were the X-Men.” No truer words existed.

Hugh Jackman Establishes His Legacy as Wolverine

Hugh Jackman was a mere name in the outer rims of Hollywood when he first stepped foot in the shoes of Wolverine. At 6 foot 2 inches, he was already 11 inches taller than his comic book counterpart, who is famously known to be 5’3”, armed with an adamantium skeleton and a foul attitude.

However, none of that seemed to matter after Jackman donned the cigar-heaving, leather-clad identity of Logan. Wolverine became the heart, soul, and salvation of the X-Men franchise overnight after the first Bryan Singer film debuted in 2000. And although that frighteningly glorious run was supposed to end in 2017 with the James Mangold-directed swan song, his return – to honor the X-Men’s transition into the MCU – demands a sigh of relief.

Hugh Jackman’s dream of coming back time and again to this comic book IP is simply not a matter of falling back into the safety net of his 24-year-old career streak as Wolverine. Rather, the actor’s reprisal of the clawed mutant is a glaring declaration of love for the lore and the fans who elevated him to the pedestal where he stands today.

Hugh Jackman’s Potential Future in the MCU

In the Old Man Logan comic storyline, a weakened, world-weary, and significantly aged Logan roams the desolate wasteland in the aftermath of a mutant extinction event. Without the will to carry on and burdened with a century’s worth of guilt and regret, Wolverine survives but forgets to live.

As made evident in the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer, the yellow spandex-clad Wolverine that Ryan Reynolds‘s Deadpool stumbles upon (courtesy of the TVA) could very well be the one from the Old Man Logan timeline. This makes matters significantly less complicated for the fans who are not ready for the actor to leave just yet while being simultaneously disappointed with his return after Logan.

In a Reddit Marvel theory, as explained by calcastanos, Hugh Jackman can stay on in the MCU as Old Man Logan, at least till the events of Avengers: Secret Wars. This will not only add validity to his return (which is straight-up insulting to the IP if he meant to do it as a one-off fun ride with Deadpool) but also elevate the first X-Men/Avengers team-up event with Jackman present.

On the bright side, the 55-year-old actor will not need to keep up with his deathly regimen of diet and exercise that keeps him in shape for those shirtless Wolverine scenes. Old Man Logan solves that problem for him while making Hugh Jackman just as invaluable to Marvel by honoring him as a legacy actor.

Although it cannot be said with absolute certainty that Deadpool & Wolverine is his last entry in the X-Men/MCU ledger, one can only hope that Jackman stays on in the Marvel Universe as Old Man Logan, not out of necessity but out of love for the character he helped nurture and raise for the past 24 years.

Deadpool & Wolverine premieres worldwide on 26 July 2024.