Jackman celebrated the 20th anniversary of X-Men by tweeting a short behind-the-scenes clip of himself tussling with a toy Wolverine between takes. “So here’s the thing,” he tweets. “When the studio called and asked if I could get in shape to play #Wolverine in 3 weeks. I might have over promised! But wouldn’t you have too? Happy 20th Anniversary X-Men Universe. #Xmen #20”
Patrick Stewart debuted a Professor X, a role he’d play for as many years as Jackman played Wolverine. Ian McKellen played Xavier’s best frenemy, Magneto. Ray Park as Toad, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, and Tyler Mane as Sabretooth made up Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants. The X-Men were James Marsden as Cyclops, Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, and Halle Berry as Storm. Anna Paquin played Rogue, the young mutant at the center of the film’s plot.
The X-Men movies concluded last year with Dark Phoenix‘s rather tepid release (though spinoff The New Mutants still lingers in release limbo). The film rights are now at Disney, and the movies are beginning to appear on the Disney+ streaming service. The first X-Men movie won’t join the Disney+ library until August 7th, but X-Men: Days of Future Past is available to streams since Friday.
After almost 20 years, Jackman finished off his time as Wolverine in 2018’s Logan.