Hugh Jackman, the iconic actor who portrayed Wolverine in the X-Men franchise, recently announced that he would be returning to the role in the third installment of the Deadpool movies.

This news came as a surprise to many, as Jackman had previously stated that his 2017 film Logan would be his last portrayal of the character.

However, there are several reasons why Jackman ultimately decided to come back to the role.

Firstly, Fox’s X-Men movies were known for their uneven quality, and Jackman’s portrayal of Wolverine was no exception.

While he was the breakout star of the franchise, some of his stand-alone films, such as X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine, were not well-received.

After over a decade of playing the character with diminishing returns, Jackman wanted to go out on top with one last, definitive portrayal of Wolverine.

To achieve this, Jackman and his team decided to adapt the iconic Old Man Logan storyline from Marvel Comics.

This series follows an aging Wolverine on his last legs, fighting for survival against increasingly desperate odds.

This idea eventually became the movie Logan, in which Jackman played an older version of the character, with his old X-Men allies dead or retired and only a decrepit Professor Xavier left to remind him of his heroic past.

Logan was a critical and commercial success, and Jackman received praise for his searing performance as a world-weary outsider.

The movie ends with Wolverine’s death, having saved his daughter in his final moments, finally managing to leave a positive legacy in the world after decades of pain and violence.

From the start, Logan was billed as Jackman’s final appearance as Wolverine.

The actor stated that he was happy to have found the perfect story to end Wolverine’s journey with, and would be moving on from the role to focus on other projects, such as his singing and dancing one-man show and film roles with a more dramatic bent.

Jackman continued to insist that he was done with Wolverine whenever asked by fans about potentially returning to the role.

However, while Fox’s X-Men movies were winding down and Jackman had found the perfect swan song for Wolverine with Logan, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was just starting to hit its stride.

Characters from Marvel Comics, which had been scattered across different studios for so long, were slowly and steadily being coalesced under one roof by MCU showrunner Kevin Feige.

The first indicator of this trend was the massively successful 2012 superhero team-up movie The Avengers.

This film turned out to be not a one-off phenomenon, but rather the new normal, as more and more iconic Marvel characters started popping up in the MCU.

Unfortunately, the merger which finally brought X-Men characters under the MCU umbrella happened after Logan was filmed.

It was around this time that Jackman appeared to be having second thoughts about saying goodbye to Wolverine.

The actor admitted in an interview with Collider, “It had long been a dream of mine to see Logan mixing it up with the heroes of the Avengers, but Jackman stated that he was not sure it would ever happen.”

However, with the merger of Fox and Disney, Jackman finally got his chance to see his dream come true.

He will be reprising his role as Wolverine in the upcoming third installment of the Deadpool movies.

Fans are eagerly awaiting to see how the character will fit into the MCU, and what new adventures he will embark on.

It is clear that Jackman’s love for the character and his desire to give fans the best possible portrayal of Wolverine was a major factor in his decision to return to the role.