After months of speculation, Sir Patrick Stewart has confirmed that his role as Professor Charles Xavier in the upcoming Logan movie will be his last in the X-Men movie universe.
Sir Patrick Stewart
Speaking on this week’s edition of The Graham Norton Show, he explained: “We got into the last five or six minutes of the movie [Logan] – and it’s a very emotional ending. I saw Hugh [tear up] a little bit. I suddenly realised – I need to do the same thing!
“And then, this is what I felt. I swear, Hugh held my hand! Of course, I was done – just finished, weeping. But then, we had to wait for the credits to roll before we could go up on stage and be introduced.
“While the credits were rolling – and they are long in these movies – I realised that if this is the end, there is no more perfect and beautiful way to say ‘au revoir’, goodbye, ‘adios’, than what has just happened.
“So, I think it’s the end for me too. Why would I want to have another go at this after what we’ve done in this movie? It’s really, really good.”
The audience, as well as host Graham Norton and co-star Hugh Jackman were all left visibly shocked by the comments, but the mood was soon lightened when surprise guest Sir Ian McKellen turned up.
McKellen of course has played Magneto in a number of X-Men movies alongside both Jackman and Stewart, and joked about not being included in Logan.
He said: “Do you know, when you get to my age you want to leave aside those tired-old franchises and move onto something fresh… I sometimes cry myself to sleep. I simply don’t know why I’m not in it!”
While Stewart looks to be pretty certain in his leaving the franchise behind, he didn’t outwardly confirm that he was 100% done, so there’s always chance his mind could be changed and he could star in an X-Men movie in the future.
Of course, the film is going to have to be something special if it’s to get him on board…
Logan comes to cinemas in the UK on March 1 and on March 3 in the US.
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