[2] Throughout 1989 and 1990, Stan Lee and Chris Claremont were in discussions with Carolco Pictures for an X-Men film adaptation,[3] with James Cameron as producer and Kathryn Bigelow directing.

20th Century Fox was impressed by the success of the TV show, and producer Lauren Shuler Donner purchased the film rights for them in 1994,[3][6] bringing Andrew Kevin Walker to write the script.

[7] Walker's draft involved Professor Xavier recruiting Wolverine into the X-Men, which consists of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast, and Angel.

The Brotherhood of Mutants, which consisted of Magneto, Sabretooth, Toad, Juggernaut and the Blob, try to conquer New York City, while Henry Peter Gyrich and Bolivar Trask attack the X-Men with three 8-foot (2.4 m) tall Sentinels.

[11] According to Entertainment Weekly, this screenplay was rejected because of its "quick-witted pop culture-referencing tone",[12] and the finished film contained only two dialogue exchanges that Whedon had contributed.

It focused heavily on character development between Wolverine and Jubilee and included Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Beast, Iceman, and Storm.

[17] Dougray Scott was cast but was forced to drop out due scheduling conflicts with Mission: Impossible 2 and was injured in a motorbike accident,[18] after which the role went to Hugh Jackman.

The character in the film had few lines, but much emotion to convey in them thus, Jackman watched Clint Eastwood in the Dirty Harry movies and Mel Gibson in Mad Max 2 as inspirations.

[31] Hence, the filmmakers were frequently forced to shoot Jackman at unusual angles or only from the waist up to make him appear shorter than his actual stature, while his co-stars wore platform soles.

Jackman was also required to add a great deal of muscle for the role, and in preparing for the films, he underwent a strict diet and exercise regimen.

[32] The scenes in the franchise in which Logan appears shirtless, in particular X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), have been widely noted by Jackman as the primary reason the character was established as a sex symbol.

Jackman noted that no digital touches were applied to his physique in a shot of him rising naked from the tank within which Logan has his bones infused with adamantium.

[49] At this time, both Reynolds and director Shawn Levy were preparing to meet with Feige and discuss how to proceed with Deadpool 3, given their lack of story ideas, and realized that including Wolverine would solve many of the issues they were coming up against.

Taking the name "Wolverine" after the Algonquian spirit, Kuekuatsheu, Logan works together with Creed to fight and kill Wilson, who has been designated Weapon XI.

After helping stop Magneto's plan, Logan is directed by Professor X to an abandoned military base around Alkali Lake that might contain information about his past, taking Cyclops' motorcycle.

William Stryker then has adamantium bonded to Victor's bones, which fails as he had originally expected, although he is content with one new success story, Lady Deathstrike.

After finally returning to the United States two years later, Logan finds himself approached by Magneto and a resurrected Professor X while learning of a new threat to all mutants.

Kitty Pryde uses her phasing powers to transfer Logan's mind back in time into his 1973 body to help the younger Xavier and Lehnsherr, as well as Hank McCoy, deter Mystique from assassinating Bolivar Trask, preventing the apocalyptic future from occurring.

In the revised timeline, although rescued by Mystique in 1973, Logan is eventually captured by Stryker, given an adamantium skeleton and subjected to brutal mental conditioning, leaving him more feral than human.

After he tears through Stryker's forces,[57] the three mutants find him and Jean telepathically restores some of Logan's human memories before he runs off through a small side-exit into the snow.

A few years later, Logan's healing factor is deteriorating (later revealed to have been compromised by a genetically engineered anti-mutant virus, along with the rest of the world), causing him to finally age past his prime and suffer from terminal adamantium poisoning.

By 2028, Xavier develops Alzheimer's and inadvertently kills several hundred people, including most of the X-Men, in a seizure-induced psychic attack in Westchester County, leaving Logan among the only survivors.

He and Caliban take Xavier to a place in Mexico near the US border, caring for him over the following year while attempting to raise money to purchase a Sunseeker yacht for the two of them to live on in peace.

In an attempt to save his reality, Wade Wilson from the revised timeline time-travels to scour Logan's grave for signs of survival, only to find his adamantium skeleton remains, which he uses to fight off TVA forces.

Following this incident, he fell into a depressive spiral, believing he had let his new family down, so he went berserk and murdered many people indiscriminately; both those who killed his fellow mutants, and innocent civilians.

His actions desecrated the X-Men’s legacy, and led to him being considered the worst Wolverine in the multiverse by the Time Variance Authority (TVA).

Eventually they, along with Johnny Storm / Human Torch, are captured by the forces of Cassandra Nova, who reveals herself to be the twin sister of Charles Xavier.

The first game does not take place in the continuity of the film series, having a closer resemblance to the Marvel Universe instead, while the second game bridges the events of X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand, as Logan mourns Jean Grey and faces a returned Jason Stryker and Lady Deathstrike, who working with HYDRA take control of his deceased father's Sentinel to eradicate mutantkind; Logan also faces his brother Victor, who had been bonded with adamantium and mind-wiped by Stryker.

"[72] Liam Gaughan of SlashFilm wrote, "If a new actor is cast as Wolverine in a rebooted X-Men franchise within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they will have to live up to the legacy that Jackman left behind.

[76] Playing the role for seventeen years in nine films, Jackman held the Guinness World Record of "longest career as a live-action Marvel superhero" between 2017 and 2021 alongside Sir Patrick Stewart.