Hugh Jackman is really, really pumped about Wolverine

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Out of all the upcoming superhero projects on the horizon, CAPTAIN AMERICA, GREEN LANTERN, THOR, FIRST CLASS, SUPERMAN and even THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, I have to say I think I’m the most excited for Darren Aronofsky’s THE WOLVERINE, as not since Nolan took on Batman have we had such talent behind a superhero project. The fact that it’s about my favorite character is an added bonus.

Someone else incredibly excited about it is the star of the show, Hugh Jackman, who recently spoke with the LA Times, detailing just what’s going into the film.

I’m really, really pumped about it. I feel like all the planets are finally aligned to make a great movie. We finally have the character and with this mythology — ever since [the 2000 Bryan Singer film] X-Men, when I was kind of hanging around and reading all these comics, because I was cast before I ever read any X-Men comics, so I was trying to get my hands on everything. I remember saying to [producer] Lauren Shuler Donner, ‘Lauren, I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen this Japanese story, and I think it’s so good. It’s just genius, it’s brilliant.’ And we kind of always talked about it from there on.

I sort of even wanted to do that in the third X-Men movie at first, but we thought, no, we really need to establish who he is at first, and we did that [with X-Men Origins: Wolverine], and now this is sort of the cherry on top, to finally do it and haveDarren Aronofsky direct it. I love his gung-ho attitude toward it and great vision. Straight off, it’s not a sequel, it’s a stand-alone, and I think we’re going to make one that people will describe as the best of the bunch.

As for the physical preparation? If you though Jackman was huge in ORIGINS, wait until you see him for THE WOLVERINE, where he’s started a 6,000 calorie diet in preparation and has already bulked up 20lbs since the last installment.

I don’t know how much I want to give away about it, but Darren said with the last one, ‘Hey you looked great, but you’re so tall that in those long shots you looked kind of like Clint Eastwood, and that’s not Wolverine.’ He said that Wolverine, in the comics, is powerful, stocky, you know, he’s short and thick. So he said, ‘I want you to go there, get bigger.’ He’s going to come down after he gets done with all the black-tie events over and done with.

Yeah, he’s thick and it’s chunky and it’s powerful. I always think of Mike Tyson when he first came on the scene. Sometimes, he was a full foot shorter than his opponents and bent over [with this] massive build. There’s real power. You said bulldog, and that’s it exactly. Exactly. That’s what I’m going for, and if I have a massive heart attack first, well, you tell everyone what I was going for.

So, you excited yet?