Hugh Jackman jokes he agreed to do Deadpool and Wolverine because he was ‘broke’

Hugh Jackman has joked that he went back on his decision to retire from the role of Wolverine by starring in Deadpool and Wolverine because he was out of pocket.

Speaking at a press conference for the upcoming Marvel movie, the actor said: "I was broke, I was doing theatre and theatre is… [not paid well]."

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The actor first played Logan in 2000’s X-Men, making the Adamantium-clawed, loveable rogue his own almost immediately. He went on to play, and indeed define, the X-Men icon in two further films before taking the character solo in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine, and he also appeared in the rebooted prequel films.

His final time with the claws was meant to be in 2017's Logan. The film helped cement his legacy in the role and felt like the perfect send off for the character, and Jackman thought just that for a time until he realised that Deadpool and Wolverine could be a great double act.

"The truth is I meant what I said when I said I was done, that Logan was going to be my last," he explains. "I announced it before we shot it, then three days after I saw Deadpool and I was like ‘oops’.

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"Then for the next four or five years I could see those two characters together, when I watched the movie all I could think of was 48 Hours, The Odd Couple, Planes Trains [and Automobiles], I could see how these two characters would work.

"I could tell you the date, August 14, I was in the theatre August 14 2022 and I was driving and it came to me like [snaps fingers]. That I wanted to do it again that I wanted to do it with Ryan [Reynolds] playing Deadpool, and I wanted these two characters together.

"I knew that Sean and Ryan were near to shooting, or somewhere on the precipice, and I pulled over on the side of the road and I rang Ryan and said ‘I want to do this. Please tell me you’re still doing this.’"

Luckily Reynolds was more than happy to have Jackman on board, in actual fact he was beyond ecstatic and said he felt like he "wished upon a star" for his co-star to share his desire to return to Wolverine. It no doubt feels the same for audiences, who have often proclaimed that Jackman is the only person who could ever play the part.

Deadpool and Wolverine premieres in cinemas on Thursday, 25 July.