Hugh Jackman Says He Has Actually Become Wolverine With Hair Photo

Hugh Jackman has played Wolverine in various Marvel movies for 25 years and the actor has finally “become the character” in a hilarious new image shared on his Instagram account. Showing off some pretty eccentric bed-hair, Jackman joked that he seems to have taken on the look of his most iconic role without even having to get in the make-up chair.

In the post, Jackman is seen holding his phone to a mirror and showing off his “Wolverine hair” that he appears to have woken up with. In his caption, the Greatest Showman actor wrote, “When you wake up, look in the mirror, and realize you’ve actually become the character you’ve played for 25 years.”

Naturally, it did not take long for someone to crack out a “Till you’re 90” line, while many of the thousands who liked and commented on the post heaped praise on “the only Wolverine” for his quarter of a century playing one of the most recognizable and loved Marvel characters to have ever appeared in the franchise.

Jackman obviously began his journey as Wolverine in 2000’s X-Men. At the age of 31, Jackman first schnicktt out his claws alongside the likes of Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, James Marsden, and Ian McKellen, but probably didn’t envision that he would still be playing him as he turned 55 in Deadpool & Wolverine. It naturally took a lot of training to get back in shape to play the X-Men character again for the first time since 2017’s Logan, a movie that seemed to have closed the book on Jackman’s impressive comic book movie run. Jackman alluded to this in an interview with PEOPLE while promoting Deadpool & Wolverine, during which he said:

“When I came back to it, it was really fun and I was thrilled. My body was a little sore at the beginning, but I was thrilled that my body was still responding. I realised how good it is for your brain. But the hardest bit…the food. I have to eat a lot. For me, for my body type, I’m naturally skinny. To get the size on, that’s the hardest bit. That’s the bit that does my head in.”

The effort was clearly worth it, as Deadpool & Wolverine became the huge cinematic blockbuster that Marvel Studios had been chasing since Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. With a worldwide box office of over $1.3 billion, Deadpool & Wolverine is still the second-highest grossing MCU movie since Avengers: Endgame, and the film proved to many that replacing Hugh Jackman with anyone else would be a massive mistake as long as he can still throw a punch and slip into a bright yellow costume.

Whether Jackman does continue on as Wolverine is now a question that is clearly being asked inside the machine that is Marvel Studios. Kevin Feige has made it clear that he wants to see both Wolverine and Deadpool back on screens as soon as possible, but only if it feels like it fits with the story being told in the wider MCU. Jackman himself has seemed more than happy to continue in the role for at least a little while, but in reality, there is a question of exactly how long that will be.

Jackman will undoubtedly appear in at least one of the upcoming Avengers movies, but with Avengers: Secret Wars being expected to close down multiverse storylines, a decision about Jackman’s involvement into 2028 and beyond needs to be made soon. There have been rumors that his character will die in Avengers: Doomsday, and some suggest that he won’t return until next year’s Secret Wars. Others are adamant that he will at least play Wolverine in the MCU’s first X-Men movie before hanging up his claws for good, but with some big X-Men stories being lined up in Phases 7 -9, would it make sense to recast a new Wolverine so soon, or just abandon the character completely?

The idea that Jackman could still be playing the character when he is 65 (let’s not get into the 90 thing), which would be about the time the next MCU saga would come to an end, seems a little far-fetched. However, we have all seen Tom Cruise throwing himself off mountains and trains for his Mission: Impossible movies, so who is to say Jackman will not be able to continue through several movies over the next decade? We will know soon enough, as casting for the next generation of X-Men will be ramping up over the next year.