Unless you've wiped it from your memory with an adamantium bullet, and I certainly wouldn't blame you if that were the case, you'll likely remember X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE as the worst of the X-MEN franchise. The film wasn't without the odd decent element, Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed certainly stood out (he really deserved to be in a better X-MEN flick), but according to an interview with Entertainment Weekly, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE nearly caused Hugh Jackman to hang up his claws and quit the X-MEN franchise for good.
After the thrashing the film received by both critics and fans alike, Hugh Jackman was left feeling as though he didn't have another X-MEN film in him, saying that he "couldn’t see what the next thing was, I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know where to go." Luckily for us, Darren Aronofsky (NOAH) arrived on the scene to save the day.
Back before James Mangold took the helm of what would end up being THE WOLVERINE, Darren Aronofsky was attached to the project and it was he who got Hugh Jackman back on-board the X-MEN train with just one simple image.
Darren said, ‘I get that he heals, but if you’re a human, your scars are with you for your entire life, the scab might go within a month or two weeks, but that’s there for life. Even if he has accelerated healing, that scars with him for a good 10 or 15 years, so he could be completely disfigured.’ All of the sudden, I had this image. It can be as simple of an idea as that, that all of a sudden makes me go, ‘Oh, there’s a whole other way to do this character. There’s a whole other way to get into it.
Aronofsky eventually dropped out of THE WOLVERINE to direct NOAH, but elements on his ideas trickled into both THE WOLVERINE and LOGAN. I think we can all be grateful that Hugh Jackman's Wolverine experience didn't end with X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, especially as LOGAN has wound up being a very fitting finale for Jackman's almost two-decade association with the franchise.
LOGAN is now playing in theaters, so make sure to check out the reviews from our own Chris Bumbray and Eric Walkuski. Also, when you have seen the film, make sure to tell us what you thought of it!