Entertainment_Weekly_Issue_1456_March_10_2017

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28 EW.COM MARCH 10, 2017


Jackman imagined doing for the superhero


genre what that 1992 film did for Westerns.


“The tone was very clear to me from the


beginning,” he says. “But think about pitch-


ingthat to the studio.”


The movie was going to be unlike any


previous X-Men adventure, and that made


it a risk for 20th Century Fox. “There was


some hesitation [on their part], but we


sweetened the pot in several ways,” Man-


gold says. “I said that I’d make the movie


for less money than these movies cost,


which we did—significantly less. Hugh said


that he’d take less of a paycheck than he


usually gets.” The small-for-the-series


budget of $100 million and an R rating—


which was considered a box office killer


beforeDeadpool raked in $783 million


worldwide last year—allowed the director


and star the freedom to send Wolverine off


in a farewell they thought worthy of him.


EDITOR’S NOTE
Major spoilers ahead. Skip to next column if
you have not seenLogan.

It was Mangold who first proposed the


idea that Logan die at the end of the film.


Jackman was open to it, but not without a


serious caveat. “I thought, ‘Thisis a reason


to do another movie and a reason to do no


more after it,’” Jackman says. “But we really


needed to earn it.” They do. Having already


delivered Laura to the Canadian border,


Logan sacrifices himself in a fight against a


merciless clone, also played by Jackman, to


secure her safe passage to the north. “As


soon as I saw the script, I got it,” Jackman


says. “Logan is someone who is most scared


of intimacy and so wants to be alone and do


things for himself. The idea that in the end


he must give his life to save someone else...


I thought that was really powerful.”


AS SERIOUS AS JACKMAN SEEMS ABOUT


laying Logan to rest, he does have an escape


clause (escape claws?) should he change his


mind. The X-Men universe, as recently as


2014, established alternate timelines, and


Professor Xavier bounced back swimmingly


from vaporization in 2006’sLast Stand. Plus,


Jackman has previously said he’d love to


bring Wolverine into an Avengers movie, à


la Spider-Man. But don’t get too excited


about that idea. Jackman insists he’s done.


“I know this doesn’t sound right coming from an Australian, but at some point
you’ve got to leave the party,” he says, and laughs. “It’s time to go home.”
And so the longest reign in superhero-movie history comes to a close. Jackman
has almost finished filming his next role—still keeping that rent paid—as circus
legend P.T. Barnum in the movie musicalThe Greatest Showman. He’s moving on,
but Wolverine and his fans will always be with him. “When I say I’ll miss it, it
can’t leave you,” he says. “It just can’t.”

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