Despite recently suggesting "Logan" might not be his final appearance as Professor X, and teasing he'd love for the character to cross paths with Deadpool, Patrick Stewart now says he's retiring from Fox's X-Men franchise.

Stewart, who debuted as Charles Xavier in 2000's "X-Men," confirmed "Logan" will be his seventh and final film as the mutant telepath.

“A week ago, Friday night in Berlin, the three of us sat, watching the movie,” he said at a SiriusXM Town Hall, where he appeared alongside Hugh Jackman and director James Mangold. “And I was so moved by it, much more moved than I had been the first time of seeing it. Maybe it was the company of these two guys, but the movie ended and — this is an admission — but at one point [Hugh] reached out, and he took my hand in those last few minutes, and I saw him go [mimes wiping a tear from his eye] like this, and then I realized I had just done the same thing. Then, the movie ended … and we were going to be taken up on stage, but not until the credits were over. So, we had some time to sit there and, as I sat there I realized there will never be a better, a more perfect, a more sensitive, emotional, and beautiful way of saying au revoir to Charles Xavier than this movie. So, I told [Hugh] that same evening, ‘I’m done too. It’s all over.'”

The 76-year-old actor was previously coy in a recent "GQ" profile about the possibility of "Logan" as his franchise swan song, admitting,  “It would be very appropriate if it were. But I've already died once in the X-Men movies, and I came back. I was vaporized by Famke Janssen — Jean Grey — in the third.” However, Stewart's latest comments certainly shed new light on his remark, "“Hugh has raised the flag that says goodbye. I haven’t done that yet."

Clearly, that moment at the screening last week with Jackman and Mangold allowed him to say goodbye.

Besides "X-Men" and "Logan," Stewart appeared as Professor X in "X2," "X-Men: The Last Stand," "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," "The Wolverine" and "X-Men: Days of Future Past." He also voiced the character in a handful of video games.

“Logan” is set in the near future, years after the epilogue of 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” In it, a weary Logan, whose healing factor is failing, cares for an ailing Professor X in a hideout on the Mexican border. But Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, pursued by dark forces.

Opening March 3, “Logan” stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant, Dafne Keen and Stephen Merchant.

(via EW.com)