'Dark Phoenix' Director Explains Why Hugh Jackman's Wolverine Isn't in Film

Hugh Jackman played the Marvel character Wolverine in every X-Men film from 2000-2017, so it's no surprise that some fans are wondering why he isn't in Dark Phoenix. This is an especially pertinent question considering the upcoming film marks the last of Fox's X-Men movies.

Director Simon Kinberg recently explained Wolverine's absence, and it wasn't just because of contracts. The real reason? The fact that the characters Logan and Jean Grey have a romance, combined with Jackman and Sophie Turner's real-life age gap, caused the director to vote against it.

Kinberg told Rolling Stone, according to CinemaBlend: "If you know the Dark Phoenix story, you’d want to really service the love story between Logan and Jean. And I think the notion of Hugh Jackman, as great as he looks for his age, and Sophie Turner — it didn’t sit well with me. Or anyone else!"

Jackman does indeed look great for his age but considering the Wolverine actor is 50 and Sophie Turner is 23, the whole less-than-half-his-age factor might have been a bit gross.

In the same interview, Kinberg also mentioned that including Wolverine in Dark Phoenix would mean drawing attention away from the main character, since Jackman's Wolverine is such a fan-favorite. The director explained:

"There was an element of this being Jean’s story. And I was committing so fully to it that I didn’t want to run the risk of pulling away from Jean by going to the well of a fan-favorite character in these movies. I wanted this to be a very different experience of seeing an X-Men movie."

Even if Kinberg and his team hadn't made this decision, there's no guarantee that Jackman himself would have joined the X-Men movie anyway, since his portrayal concluded with 2017's Logan.

Dark Phoenix opens in theaters this Friday, June 7.