25 Years of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine

Seeing Wolverine's shadow loom over Deadpool in the trailer for their new film I found myself thinking of how this movie marks a quarter of a century of Jackman playing the character on the big screen. Starting with 2000's X-Men, he reprised the role in the subsequent two films that produced that trilogy (2003, 2006), a trio of Wolverine movies (2009, 2013, 2017), and the rebooted X-Men trilogy (2011, 2014, 2016), prior to this movie--ten films in all over twenty-five years.

It really is an extraordinary run--twice as long as Daniel Craig (or Roger Moore's) run as James Bond, for example. It testifies to how well-received Jackman's portrayal of the character has been--but also how, despite what some foolish contrarians insist, big commercial films and the careers they make have been about franchises, rather than stars, and sticking with a successful actor-character combination (like Jackman as Wolverine) what makes for a Big Name.