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.”b
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