Originally appeared on E! Online
Could Hugh Jackman be ready to hit the big top once again?
The “X-Men” actor — who starred as circus tycoon P.T. Barnum in “The Greatest Showman” alongside Zendaya and Zac Efron—revealed that he’s open to doing a sequel to the 2017 musical movie.
“The first one took us eight years,” Jackman exclusively told E! News at the “Deadpool & Wolverine” premiere July 22. “Maybe we started five years ago, and it’s gonna be another nine years.”
So, Jackman is never saying never, adding, “I love that movie, and I loved everything about it. So yeah, I’m open.”
And no one is more ready to rewrite the stars than Jackman’s BFF and “Deadpool & Wolverine” costar, Ryan Reynolds.
“What are you so afraid [of]?” Reynolds quipped during the interview, airing July 23. “Give us a sequel! My kids want it even!”
Still, Jackman was reticent to give a firm answer, quipping that from now on, “If I say no or yes or anything, no one believes me anymore. I said I was never playing Wolverine again. So, whatever.”
Luckily for fans, in addition to watching Jackman play Wolverine for the first time since his heartbreaking turn in 2017’s “Logan,” they’ll also be treated to a track from “The Greatest Showman” in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” out in theaters July 26.
The 55-year-old even joked that his contract dictates that “no matter how inappropriate, that we have to have some Showman tracks” in his movies.
And as it turns out, Jackman has recently stepped back into the shoes of his “Greatest Showman” character, making a million dreams come true to entertain Reynolds and wife Blake Lively’s children: James, 9, Inez, 7, Betty, 4, and Olin, who was born in 2023.
“My kids watch Greatest Showman all the time,” Reynolds revealed during a July 22 SiriusXM interview. “I walked into my house, and I’ve come in, I’ve heard “The Greatest Showman” playing, and I come around the corner and there are my kids watching the movie, singing along and there’s Hugh acting it out with them like just this big kid.”
The 47-year-old continued, “It was [one of] the most heartbreaking, beautiful things I’d ever seen. I knew I would never be able to top it, so I’ve started a new life in a new country with a secret family just like everyone’s supposed to.”
But of course, Jackman had the last laugh, adding, “By the way, we didn’t rent it, we bought it on your account. Residuals.”
