Hugh Jackman says he would have joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Wolverine if Disney bought Fox earlier. For nearly two decades, Jackman was the face of Fox's X-Men movie franchise, appearing in a total of nine films. He formally retired from the Wolverine role following 2017's Logan, which received widespread critical praise and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. 2017 was coincidentally also the year Disney began the process of acquiring 20th Century Fox's entertainment assets, with the deal becoming official in 2019. As a result, the Mouse House has the film rights to Marvel characters previously owned by Fox, such as the Fantastic Four and the X-Men.

The prospect of the X-Men and Fantastic Four finally being integrated into the MCU is an exciting one for fans, though most definitely wish the Fox/Disney deal happened much sooner so Jackman could have interacted with Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, and the rest of Earth's Mightiest Heroes during the Infinity Saga. It shouldn't come as any surprise Jackman himself would have gladly jumped at the opportunity if it presented itself to him.

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During an interview with The Daily Beast, Jackman discussed Wolverine's cinematic future in the MCU, where a new actor will take on the role at some point:

Totally. Honestly, Marlow, if seven years ago that had happened I’d be like, “Oh yeah!” but I knew it was the right time for me to leave the party—not just for me, but for the character. Somebody else will pick it up and run with it. It’s too good of a character not to. It’s kind of like, you’re on your way home and your friend rings you and goes, Oh, dude, a new DJ just came on and the music is awesome, are you going to come back? And you say, Sounds good but… no. They’re fine with someone else.

Jackman's previously said he'd have kept playing Wolverine if the X-Men were in the MCU around the time of Logan, but it sounds like he's at peace with the way things played out. And Logan was arguably the perfect sendoff for Jackman's iteration of the mutant, closing his tenure with an emotional and riveting story that ranks among the best in the genre. In many respects, that film marked the end of an era, setting the stage for someone else to come in and play Wolverine. Whenever the character makes his debut in the MCU, it'll be the start of a new chapter, so it makes sense for Wolverine to be played by a different actor. That's undoubtedly going to take some getting used to, but several comic book characters have been recast throughout history. Jackman is synonymous with Wolverine, but there are others out there who can do the part justice.

Still, it's hard to read Jackman's quote and not think about what might have been. There's no denying it'd have been a lot of fun to see him to see his Wolverine trade barbs with other MCU heroes, giving the franchise yet another big name to build around over the past handful of years. But, there also would have been a tradeoff. If Jackman joined the MCU in the early or mid 2010s, Logan would never have happened. The gritty, R-rated drama is tonally very different from the MCU's family-friendly PG-13 offerings, so that's something else to consider. Perhaps it's best Jackman stayed in Fox's Marvel universe and now another actor can bring the character to life in the MCU in a clean reboot.

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Source: The Daily Beast

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