Hugh Jackman upstages Reeves and Wahlberg at Comic-Con

The first Hall H panel of Comic-Con on Thursday (July 24) included previously announced guests Keanu Reeves (for The Day the Earth Stood Still) and Mark Wahlberg (for Max Payne), but the man who brought the house down at the 20th Century Fox event was a bearded Hugh Jackman, fresh off an airplane after completing work on X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

"I know what you're thinking," Jackman started, doing nothing to silence the hooting. "This guy is way to too tall to play Wolverine."

"I've waited years to bring Wolverine here to Comic-Con," said Jackman. "Years."

He added, "Without you guys, I wouldn't have a career. Without you guys there wouldn't be X-Men 2 and 3. There wouldn't be Wolverine."

As if the crowd wasn’t loud, Jackman raised additional pulses by heading into the cheap seats to greet Len Wein, creator of the Wolverine character.

"I have to shake your hand, because from that hand came the character who gave me a career," he said.

Jackman whet more than a few appetites by promising, "All I'll say is the movie is big, it is action packed and two words I know you want to hear, if I could describe Wolverine movie, is 'bad ass.'"

He added, "You're going to see a lot of berserker rage. Let me tell you."

With the Gavin Hood directed feature hitting theaters next May, this was Jackman's only chance to tease the movie for Comic-Con audiences and he didn't disappoint.

"I grabbed a whole lot of footage threw it in a big and literally glued it together," he announced.

Jackman was obviously being disingenuous, because the footage screened was fairly tight and, not to indulge my inner fanboy, fairly awesome. As the title indicates, it's an origin story and the clips showcased the young Logan (Jackman) and Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber), best known to fans as Wolverine and Sabretooth. We also got lots of Danny Huston as William Stryker and, to the great joy of the crowd, several shots of Taylor Kitsch, whose arrival as Gambit already seems to be yielding salivation.

It's too early to know if the X-Men Origins: Wolverine footage will join the Comic-Con blockbuster-making pantheon of clips from 300 or Iron Man, but for a movie that hadn't been generating the best of buzz, this was an obvious shot in the arm.

Comments

Am I the only one who thinks Wolverine is over-rated? I mean, he's cool and all, but I prefer Xavier, Beast, and Gambit over him any day.

Blue Sean | Jul 24, 2008 1:44:27 PM | #

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Yes, you are. ;)

Frank | Jul 24, 2008 2:20:46 PM | #

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I'd agree, Blue Sean, although I can't comment on Gambit, and I'd replace Beast with someone else (Nightcrawler, maybe, or Storm).

But I'm not a 'true' X-Men fan - never read the comics, never seen the cartoons, etc - just seen the movies...

DanC | Jul 24, 2008 4:38:22 PM | #

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I would love to see the X-Men character Bishop come to the big screen as well as Gambit & Cable.

Jay | Jul 24, 2008 5:16:30 PM | #

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The only reason I'm looking forward to this is Deadpool, though Gambit will also be cool to see. Heres hoping Ryan Reynolds can pull off Wade Wilson( I think so).

Rob | Jul 24, 2008 5:55:59 PM | #

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I was in Hall H and the energy was freaking amazing. I was never a Hugh Jackman fan but I am now. He has it and Wolverine looks fantastic.

Miller | Jul 28, 2008 5:17:19 PM | #

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