As "Logan" wraps its record-breaking opening weekend with a $237.8 million worldwide haul, star Hugh Jackman has released a video thanking fans for his "17 awesome years" as Wolverine.
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Set to the tune of Johnny Cash's "Hurt," which made such an impact in the first trailer, the video features a montage of movie posters and fan art. It ends with the words "To All the Fans ... Thank You."
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The actor, who debuted in the role in 2000's "X-Men" before going on to play Wolverine in eight more films, previously thanked longtime fans Feb. 24 at "Logan's" New York City premiere. "This is like a dream,” he said. “After 17 years, I feel I’ve met every Wolverine and ‘X-Men’ fan [in the street]. … Honestly, these 17 years would not have been possible without you. I love this character, and I love you guys.”
However, Jackman recently admitted he had trouble grasping the role during filming of "X-Men." “I was kind of struggling, to be honest,” he said in January at Producers Guild Awards. “It was the first movie I had ever done in America. I was pretty tight. I was nervous. I was average, to be honest, at best. No one was saying anything and I sort of thought I was getting away with it, but I wasn’t.” He credited the intervention of Fox’s Tim Rothman, and the support of co-star Ian McKellen, with helping to turn around his performance.
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"I was very nervous on that first film," Jackman recalled last week on "The Graham Norton Show," where he appeared with McKellen and Patrick Stewart. "I started three weeks in, it was my first movie, and there was a lot going on and there was a lot of people, and I remember you [McKellen] pulling me aside and saying, 'This at times is going to feel uncomfortable, it's going to feel overwhelming, but you're in good hands and everything is going to be OK.' [...] It was the first day I met you, and you saying that, I never, ever forgot that."
Now, more than 17 years later, Jackman is a certified movie star who's ready to move beyond Wolverine and the X-Men, no matter how intensely Ryan Reynolds may push for that Deadpool team-up.
Directed by James Mangold, “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.
In theaters nationwide, “Logan” stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant, Dafne Keen and Stephen Merchant.