Entertainment_Weekly_Issue_1456_March_10_2017

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he could keep making these movies until his abs exploded, but did he have any-

thing else tosay as Wolverine, and if he didn’t, should he just...stop?

The answer came to him, in part, during a conversation with Jerry Seinfeld. Over

dinner some time afterThe Wolverinein 2013,the friends talked about the come-

dian’s decision to walk away from his sitcom and how he knew the time was right.

Seinfeld’s advice: Leave a little in the tank.

“The moment he said it, I was like,This is it,”

Jackman recalls. “I’m quite indecisive, but

when I get that gut feeling, it’s kind of a

relief to me. When I met my wife, I knew.

With the kids, I knew. When I was talking to

Jerry that day, I was like,Oh, yeah.”

In that instant, Jackman realized he had

one last thing to give Wolverine: an ending.

LOGAN BEGAN AS A CONVERSATION

between Jackman and Mangold on the set

ofThe Wolverine: If there were to be another

sequel, it had to be something smaller,

something darker. “We drill down and

somehow get deeper,” Mangold says. “I did

not want to get involved with the CG arms

race. One year you’re blowing up a city, and

the next year you’re blowing up a country.”

The pair had several movie references—

e.g.,The Wrestler,Shane—but only one true

touchstone: Clint Eastwood’sUnforgiven.

( Clockwise from

top )Jackman and

X-Mendirector

Bryan Singer

(right); Dougray

Scott; Jackman

on stage as the

star ofOklahoma!

ONLY SEEMS THAT WAYNLYNLYNLYLL AYAYYY

X-MEN:

FIRST CLASS 2011

“Go f--- yourselves.”

Sure, the cameo is

three words long, but

this may be the purest

distillation of what

we love about the surly

character.

BOX OFFICE

$146 million

X-MEN TIMELINE 1962

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST 2014

Wolverine’s time with the X-Men, his adop-

tive family, comes full circle when his

consciousness is sent through time and he’s

tasked with bringing the team together, nar-

rowly avoiding an apocalyptic future and

forging a link between two generations of

franchise stars.

BOX OFFICE$234 million

X-MEN TIMELINE 2023 and 1973

THE WOLVERINE 2013

Pulling inspiration from the popular 1982

comic-book miniseries by Chris Claremont

and Frank Miller, the Japan-set saga finds

Logan still nursing his wounds after

the death of Jean. The first James Mangold-

directed installment helped rehab the

image of the spin-offs after a rocky start,

ultimately setting the stage for Logan.

BOX OFFICE$133 million

X-MEN TIMELINE Seven years afterTLS

X-MEN:

APOCALYPSE 2016

While fans never got to

see Jackman don the

classic blue and yellow

suit, they did glimpse

another of the charac-

ter’s signature looks in a

rehash of his escape

from the weapons lab.

Who knew the actor

could pull off the mind-

control helmet?

BOX OFFICE

$155 million

X-MEN TIMELINE 1983