After almost two decades playing X-Men's beloved mutant leader Professor Charles Xavier, Patrick Stewart has announced he's hanging up the, uh, wheelchair.
The actor, 76, was promoting his role in the new Wolverine film Logan with star Hugh Jackman and director James Mangold, when he revealed the grizzled appearance would be his last as Professor X.
"A week ago, Friday night in Berlin, the three of us sat watching the movie. And I was so moved by it, much more moved than I had been the first time seeing it," he said in a SiriusXM Town Hall.
"Maybe it was the company of these two guys, but the movie ended and at one point [Hugh] reached out and he took my hand in those last few minutes and I saw him go like this," Stewart said, miming wiping a tear from his eye.
"I realised I had just done the same thing... I realised there will never be a better, a more perfect, a more sensitive, emotional and beautiful way of saying au revoir to Charles Xavier than this movie," he said.
"So I told Hugh that same evening, 'I'm done too. It's all over.'"
Stewart had played the character with dignified grace in seven feature films, beginning with 2000's X-Men, directed by Bryan Singer, and then in subsequent sequels and spin-offs.
The role was essentially taken over by James McAvoy in the young reboot of the series, beginning with Matthew Vaughn's 2011 prequel X-Men: First Class, although both actors co-starred in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past.
shoutout to Professor X & Wolverine holding hands & crying in the dark pic.twitter.com/yDmXat3XBm— Jacob Clifton (@jacobtwop) February 26, 2017
A night out with my friends @RealHughJackman and Dafne at the premiere of #LOGAN in New York. Very excited for all of you to see this movie. pic.twitter.com/Gbap93FrR6— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) February 25, 2017
The news signals another significant shift for Fox's franchise, infamously unaligned to Marvel's ever-burgeoning cinematic universe, with Jackman having long ago announced he was putting away his Wolverine claws for good following Logan.
Logan, which opens in cinemas on Thursday, has already received largely positive reviews, with Fairfax critic Karl Quinn calling it "the most human superhero film since The Dark Knight".
