Earlier this year, Hugh Jackman gave his final performance as Wolverine in the gritty and excellent Logan. The R-rated X-Men film was a surprise success: a dark, near future comic film more along the lines of a superhero version of The Road. It was a stunning conclusion to his nearly two decades as Wolverine.
While this summer, Jackman explained his decision to retire the character by simply saying it "just felt like it was the right time to do it," there's actually more to the story. In a new conversation with Willem Dafoe for Variety, Jackman reveals that it's was actually his buddy Jerry Seinfeld who convinced him to hang up his claws.
As Variety reports:
When Jackman asked the famous comic how he decided to end his hit series Seinfeld, "He said, 'I've always believed, you should never spend everything creatively because it's almost herculean to start up again. You should always have something in the tank,'" Jackman recalled. "Leave the party before it gets too late kind of theory." Jackman decided on the way home from that dinner that his upcoming film, Logan, would be his final in that role. He then came up with the idea of treating the character as a human being (instead of a superhero) who's lived a life of violence.
While Jackman certainly ended the character with his finest performance, Seinfeld might not be the best person to get advice from about how to end a beloved franchise.
