By Erin Free
“When I got cast in X-Men, I was walking down the hallway of my American agency, and everyone was coming out of their offices,” Hugh Jackman laughed to FilmInk in 2009. “Assistants and secretaries were high fiving me! Someone shouted out, ‘Jackman! You rock, man! Wolverine, yeah!’ I thought, ‘Is this what happens to every actor when they get their first gig? What’s the deal?’ Later on, I realised that they knew what it all meant, but I was blissfully unaware. The only reference that I had of The X-Men was that Aussie rock band from the eighties, The Uncanny X-Men. Honestly, that was it. I thought that maybe I was playing Brian Mannix, you know?”
A hell of a lot has changed since Hugh Jackman was cast in Bryan Singer’s 2000 blockbuster, X-Men. The film launched the famously genial and charismatic Australian actor onto the world stage, and forged the metal-solid relationship that Jackman has since developed with the character of Wolverine, who he has now played over a clutch of movies. The actor now has the kind of knowledge and enthusiasm for the character usually reserved for comic book geeks and obsessed internet bloggers. “I’m definitely protective of it,” Jackman has told FilmInk of his role as Wolverine. “I have great affection for it. The last thing that I thought I would do after graduating from drama school was be an action movie guy. Honestly, I thought that would be the last thing that I’d do. I’ve always approached Wolverine as another character, and it might seem hard to believe, but it’s probably one of the hardest challenges that I’ve had as an actor. I love it. It’s the backbone of my career, and it’s given me a lot of opportunities.”
First introduced in an issue of The Incredible Hulk in 1974, Wolverine has now become one of the most popular and enduring characters in the Marvel Comics stable. A member of the mutant superhero team, The X-Men, Wolverine (aka Logan) is blessed – or perhaps cursed – with a rapid healing factor, which allows him to not only recover from injury with extraordinary speed, but also to age at an abnormally slow rate. Though his genuine origins are cloudy (they’ve been covered in a variety of different comic book strands, with some now disavowed and not counted as strict “canon”), Wolverine is presumed to be around 150-years-old. Also possessed of retractable bone claws and animal-keen sensory powers, Wolverine was absorbed into the shady Weapon X programme, where his skeleton was covered with the metal adamantium, making him near indestructible, and his claws even more deadly. “Wolverine is a dangerous character,” says veteran producer, Ralph Winter, who worked on the first three X-Men films and 2009’s bitterly disappointing X-Men Origins: Wolverine. “You’re not sure what he’s going to do. There’s a rage that’s always just beneath the surface. He’s been manipulated and deceived, and yet he has a charming side. He fights for the right thing. There’s a lot going on behind his eyes, and that’s always attractive.” Shakespearean in scope, Wolverine is one of Marvel’s greatest creations, both in print and on screen.
X-Men: Apocalypse is released in cinemas on May 19.
