24 years ago, Hugh Jackman made an exaggerated prediction that Deadpool 3 will officially surpass when it releases in the summer of this year.

Hugh Jackman is a bona fide superhero movie veteran, and his upcoming appearance in Deadpool 3 breaks a prediction he made that had been 24 years in the making. While it is ostensibly a Deadpool movie, it looks as though Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine will also play a central role in Deadpool 3, even appearing in the MCU in his comic-accurate yellow spandex suit. Jackman’s first appearance as Logan was nearly 24 years ago when he debuted as Wolverine in X-Men. This would not only commence a long career as Wolverine but also help propel Jackman into Hollywood superstardom.

It was also around this time that Jackman and other X-Men stars were interviewed by Entertainment Weekly and asked what superpowers they would keep from the characters they were set to portray. In a prescient response from the then less experienced Jackman, he joked:

”Considering I’m starting some kind of career in Hollywood, I’d like the regenerative ability of Logan. The fact that he’s about 100 years old could come in kind of handy if we end up doing ‘X-Men 7.”’

Suffice it to say, Jackman was likely being hyperbolic when he threw out the concept of an X-Men 7 way back in 2000 – but with the release of Deadpool 3, this wild prediction has been unexpectedly surpassed.

Deadpool 3 Breaks Hugh Jackman’s 7 X-Men Movie Prediction

Since 2000, there have been 7 X-Men movies that have featured Wolverine in a central role. This means that Jackman’s exaggerated prediction actually came true 17 years later. Not only that, but the fact that Jackman is one of Hollywood’s most shredded superhero actors shows that his health has been a constant priority, meaning he has been more than capable of embodying the role over two decades later. While it is no regenerative healing factor, it is about as close as a mortal human can get.

Deadpool 3, meanwhile, will be the eighth movie to star Jackman in his role as Wolverine, meaning that it will surpass that prediction altogether. It is also rumored to be starring multiple other actors from Fox’s X-Men franchise as the MCU continues a trend that began with Patrick Stewart’s Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and most recently with Kelsey Grammer’s Beast in The Marvels. The continued prevalence of Fox’s X-Men has officially defied all expectations, as it was a commonly held belief in 2000 that superhero movies didn’t have that kind of staying power.

Why 7 X-Men Movies Seemed So Far-Fetched In 2000

At the time, the longest-running Superhero movie franchises were Superman and Batman, with both boasting a total of four movies by 2000. Unfortunately, they ended on a low note with Superman 4: The Quest for Peace and Batman & Robin (which was released just three years before X-Men) being critically panned. This explains why, despite Fox’s intention to make a franchise out of its X-Men movies, the idea that it would ever warrant six sequels was widely believed to be ridiculous.This was, however, before the MCU and DCEU were twinkles in their respective studios’ eyes. Plus, it is largely thanks to the quality of X-Men and Spider-Man that the superhero genre was catapulted into the popularity seen today, which has since been nurtured by the MCU for nearly two decades. Now, Deadpool 3 is capitalizing on the nostalgia that Jackman’s Wolverine brings to the table – though it is still hard to imagine any other actor that could embody the role so well.