Movies

Jerry Seinfeld convinced Hugh Jackman to retire as Wolverine

Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman explains what the impetus was for moving on from the iconic role.

December 28, 2017

When the Disney/Fox acquisition first went down, we speculated whether or not Hugh Jackman would reprise his iconic role as adamantium-laced bad-ass Wolverine for the X-Men franchise.

Although Jackman admitted that “for the whole 17 years I kept thinking that would be so great, like I would love to see, particularly, Iron Man and the Hulk and Wolverine together,” he also made it clear that “unfortunately, the ship has sailed for me, but for someone else I would like to see Wolverine in there.”

No small feat: Jackman played the Wolverine character for 17+ years.

In recent interview with Willem Dafoe in Variety‘s Actor on Actors series, Jackman reiterates the sentiment that he wants to move on from playing Logan, revealing that it was a dinner with comedian Jerry Seinfeld that was the catalyst for his thinking:

What happened was I had a dinner with Jerry Seinfeld, who’s a friend of mine. I was asking him about the end of the series. I said, ‘How did you decide?’ And, long story, he kind of said, ‘Look, I’ve always believed, creatively, you should never spend everything… because it’s almost Herculean to start up again. You should always have something in the tank. Leave the party before it gets too late kind of theory. And then somehow it spurs you into the next thing.’ As he was talking, I went home and I said to [his wife] Deb on my way home in a cab… ‘This is the last one.’ She goes, ‘What?’ I said, ‘I just know this is the last one.'”

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Is it time to move on as Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? If so, we can all agree that whoever has to assume the role next has some big, three-holed gloves to fill.