Hugh Jackman is done playing Wolverine. As Logan continues to do well at the box office, it seems so weird to think that we’ve seen Jackman as the X-Man for the last time. Perhaps only Sean Connery as James Bond has so indelibly taken a popular culture character and married it to his own identity. For 17 years, Jackman embodied the character from the first time we saw him cage fighting in a bar in X-Men to his farewell in Logan. Not too shabby for a song and dance man.
X-Men was most people’s first exposure to Jackman, but his talents are far from merely dicing people in super hero films. He’s a consummate Broadway actor; an old-fashioned song and dance man, as I said. He’s hosted the Tony Awards on four occasions; winning an Emmy for one of the shows. He most famously got to put his musical gifts to use on screen as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables; Jackman’s only Oscar nomination. He’s an outstanding dramatic actor, you need only watch The Prestige and Prisoners back-to-back to see the amount of range he has. His good nature also makes him a gifted comic actor, which I think has been best shown in the underrated Real Steel and Eddie the Eagle (where, yes, he is playing Wolverine as a ski jumping coach, but it WORKS!). It’s always possible that a payday or Ryan Reynolds stalking him to be in a Deadpool or X-Force film could give us another Jackman as Logan turn, but his career is far from over just because he’s said farewell to his most famous alter ego.
Hugh Jackman’s Best 10
1. The Prestige (2006), Robert Angier
2. Prisoners (2013), Keller Drover
3. X2: X-Men United (2003), Wolverine
4. X-Men (2000), Wolverine
5. Logan (2017), Logan
6. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Wolverine
7. The Greatest Showman (2017) P.T. Barnum
8. The Fountain (2006), Tom Creo
9. Eddie the Eagle (2016), Bronson Peary
10. Les Miserables (2012), Jean Valjean
Honorable Mention: Real Steel (2011), Charlie Keaton
Oscars, Golden Globes & Emmys
Oscar Wins (0): None
Oscar Nominations (1): Les Miserables (2013)
Golden Globe Wins (1): Les Miserables (2013)
Golden Globe Nominations (3): Kate & Leopold (2002), Les Miserables (2013), The Greatest Showman (2018)
Emmy Wins (1 ): The 58th Annual Tony Awards (2005)
Emmy Nominations (4): The 58th Annual Tony Awards (2005), The 59th Annual Tony Awards (2006), The 81st Annual Academy Awards (2009), The 68th Annual Tony Awards (2015)
My Favorite Jackman Scene:
“The Cost of The Trick” from The Prestige HUGE SPOILER WARNING
Next Film: Hugh Jackman has two films lined up for 2018: returning to his roots in Broadway 4D and playing failed presidential candidate Gary Hart in Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner.
