How ‘Birdman’ Convinced Hugh Jackman He Should Play Wolverine Until He Dies

Hugh Jackman has revealed that he wants to play Wolverine until he dies.

The Australian actor made his comments during an interview with Cigar Aficionado, via Comic Book, to promote his upcoming work on Chappie, and he confessed that despite the fact he has already portrayed the character 7 times, Jackman still believes there is new ground for him to cover.

“Every time I play Wolverine I want to go further, physically and emotionally,” Jackman remarked.

In fact, Jackman admitted that after watching Birdman, he now wants to carry on portraying the beloved mutant for as long as possible.

Jackman recalled that while watching the film alongside his wife he turned to her and remarked, “The moral is that I should never stop playing Wolverine. I’ve got to find a way to keep playing him until I die.”

Birdman revolves around Michael Keaton’s leading character who is a washed-up actor most famous for having played a superhero in a huge franchise. In order to try and move out of the shadow that this character has cast over his career, Keaton makes his own Broadway play.

However, despite the fact that Jackman clearly still loves playing Wolverine, he admitted that he knows he will one day be recast. “I know that someday they’ll recast the role with another actor,” he explained, and a part of him is looking forward to that day too. “I’d be happy if the role was eventually recast,” he admitted. “It would mean that it had become iconic.”

If Wolverine is re-cast in the near future, Jackman believes that Ryan Reynolds shouldn’t be considered as his replacement. But, rather than having any issue with Reynolds acting abilities, Jackman believes that he’s just too nice for the part.

Reynolds, who starred as Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine opposite Jackman, will star in his own Deadpool origin film, which is due out in 2016. When talking about Reynolds, Jackman stated, “I don’t want to canonize the guy, but he’s like a living, breathing saint.”

Matthew Vaughn, who directed X-Men: First Class, recently admitted that if he’d overseen X-Men: Days Of Future Past, he would have recast Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. In the end, Vaughn was replaced by Bryan Singer as the director of Days Of Future Past, and the English filmmaker oversaw Kingsman instead.

[Image via Fox]