Movies

Here's Who to Blame for Hugh Jackman Walking Away From His Biggest Role

Here's Who to Blame for Hugh Jackman Walking Away From His Biggest Role
Image credit: Legion-Media

Hugh Jackman is a wonderful theater and movie actor. He starred in Broadway musicals as well as The Greatest Showman as well as criminal dramas. But to the wider audience he is better known as fierce Marvel mutant-character Wolverine.

Starting in 2000, Hugh Jackman served as Wolverine for seventeen years. He appeared in nine out of thirteen movies of the X-Men franchise and had a trilogy dedicated to his character. The final part of the latter, 2017's Logan, saw Jackman in his most prominent role for the last time.

The actor said in an interview to Jimmy Fallon that there was a person who had influenced his decision to step out of Wolverine's shoes.

The rationale was simple but true: to quit while you still have energy and creativity to do something else, to move forward. You will never believe that the wise man behind that advice was nobody but comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

Jerry Seinfeld starred in a classic sitcom named after him from 1989 to 1998. The series followed fictionalized Seinfeld as well as three of his friends in their daily lives in New York. Described as "a series about nothing", it was a huge success, with its last season attracting thirty-five and a half million viewers.

Having left the project at its peak, Jerry Seinfeld knew what he was talking about when he convinced Hugh Jackman to move on from his biggest role.

After leaving Seinfeld, the comic continued his stand-up career and garnered international recognition. In the 2010s, his original comedy show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee was so popular with the audience that it was right away bought by yet emerging Netflix and renewed for numerous seasons. It featured world-class comedians and other guests including then-president Barack Obama.

Hugh Jackman sagaciously took Seinfeld's advice and was done with Wolverine on completion of Logan – arguably the best movie of the X-Men franchise that was even nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars.

The actor had the opportunity to graciously end things on his terms. Jackman was no longer limited in his creativity and decided to go on with his Broadway endeavors. He has managed to star in several different projects over the past years. This creative hiatus must have reinvigorated Hugh Jackman as he's returning to the role of Wolverine one last time in the upcoming Deadpool 3 movie.