In the minds of comic book movie fans, Hugh Jackman is Wolverine. For the last 15 years, Jackman has inhabited the role of “Logan” since the first live-action X-Men movie. But after the third Wolverine movie in 2017, Jackman will step out from the character.
Jackman’s departure asks the following question: who can replace him as Wolverine? During an interview for his movie Pan, Jackman said that he had not “really given it a lot of thought.” Jackman also said that he did not want to make it very easy for Fox to replace his character, before naming Tom Hardy as his personal pick. Jackman noted that Hardy will be great in the role.
Hardy has experience in the comic book movie realm and has played Bane in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises and was cast in the Suicide Squad movie before he dropped out. Hardy has the perfect physique for this role, and he has proven that he can headline a movie in Legend and Mad Max: Fury Road.
Jackman’s stint as Wolverine is very unique in Hollywood. Roger Moore played James Bond for 12 years, short of Jackman’s 17 years as Wolverine. Assuming that Robert Downey Jr. plays out the length of his Marvel Studios contract in 2019’s Avengers: Infinity War Part 2, he will have portrayed Tony Stark/Iron Man for 11 years.
No one else in superhero movies comes close to Jackman’s record. And do not bring up the original Star Wars cast as contenders to Jackman’s achievement. A 32-year hiatus between films is not a continuous run. As for Harison Ford’s Indiana Jones, he comes in at 27 years in the title role, but this includes a 19-year hiatus between the third and fourth movies.
