Only 1 X-Men Movie Has Broken Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine Trademark

Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has only broken one surprising trend once in his live-action X-Men movie history. Hugh Jackman first appeared as James “Logan” Howlett’s Wolverine in 2000’s X-Men, and has gone on to become one of the longest-running superhero actors of all time, with appearances in ten feature films spanning the last 24 years. Jackman’s most recent appearance in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine marked his debut in the MCU proper, but this Marvel Studios project continued a brilliant Wolverine trend established in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise.

During the original X-Men trilogy, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine became the backbone of Fox’s X-Men franchise. This led to the development of a solo trilogy for the clawed mutant, which gave him plenty of time to develop, and many opportunities to show off his incredible abilities. One of these abilities, it seems, was the power to remove his shirt, which Wolverine did in almost all of his live-action appearances, except for one.

Hugh Jackman Wasn’t Shirtless As Wolverine In X-Men: First Class

Out of Hugh Jackman’s ten feature film appearances as Wolverine, he has been shirtless in nine of them. The only X-Men movie that didn’t feature Wolverine without his shirt on was 2011’s X-Men: First Class, which was also the first movie in the X-Men to not star Wolverine as a main character. Instead, Logan only makes a brief cameo appearance, in which he’s approached by James McAvoy’s Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender’s Erik Lehnsherr, who are about to ask him to join their new X-Men, though he swiftly and rudely demands they leave him alone.

Appearing in a bar, Wolverine didn’t have the opportunity to take his shirt off in X-Men: First Class, though audiences have seen his muscular physique develop over the course of all his other X-Men movies. Seeing them side-by-side, it’s interesting to note how male body standards and the idea of a superhero physique have changed, perhaps not for the better, in the years since Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine debut in 2000. He has become far more muscular over the years, which was put on display again during his shocking shirtless scene in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine.

Deadpool & Wolverine Took A Shirtless Wolverine To The Next Level

Deadpool & Wolverine continued the pattern of having Hugh Jackman take his shirt off as Wolverine in live-action. In the Phase 5 movie’s climactic moment, the titular Wade Wilson and Logan plug themselves into Mr. Paradox’s Time Ripper, disrupting Cassandra Nova’s plan at the risk of their own lives. Perhaps because of the machine’s immense amount of energy, the top half of Wolverine’s costume hilariously disintegrates, allowing Deadpool to eye up Logan’s muscular physique, which Hugh Jackman worked remarkably hard to accomplish in the lead-up to Deadpool & Wolverine’s filming.

At first glance, this seems to be just another shirtless Wolverine scene, but Deadpool & Wolverine took this pattern to the next level. Sure, Wolverine was topless, but he was at least wearing his mask. It took 24 years for Hugh Jackman to finally suit up in a comic-accurate, yellow-and-blue Wolverine costume, with the iconic horned helmet to boot, and Marvel Studios milked this moment for all it was worth. While his shirtless moment was certainly impressive, seeing Wolverine finally don his comic-accurate attire was even more satisfying.

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