Hugh Jackman has confirmed that the next Wolverine movie will be his last playing the Marvel anti-hero. The studio recently announced that the film will hit cinemas in March 2017 - at which time the Australian actor would be 48.

Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman, who recently starred in Chappie, will play Wolverine for the very last time

Jackman posted an image on Instagram featuring three of his character's claws with the caption: "WOLVERINE ... ONE LAST TIME. HJ" The upcoming movie will be the third solo movie for Jackman after 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine and 2013's The Wolverine. The Australian actor has appeared in seven films as Wolverine, including 2000's X-Men.

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"Great parts always outgrow the actors that play them," he told reporters at the San Sebastián film festival in September 2013. "If you forget that, it's at your own peril. I've been doing it for 10 years."

Jackman is also expected to appear in X-Men: Apocalypse, directed once again by Bryan Singer. The film is also likely to be the curtain call for Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult.

It's shaping to be a busy couple of years for Jackman, who's working on the Broadway 4D project, as well as the new Peter Pan movie (in which he plays Blackbeard). After that comes X:Men: Apocalypse and then The Greatest Showman on Earth - the story of American showman P.T. Barnum, founder of the circus that became the famous traveling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. After all that, Jackman will begin work on the last Wolverine movie.

Jackman recently starred in Neill Blomkamp's Chappie.

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