After 17 years, there are few comic book fans who would argue that Hugh Jackman didn’t fully inhabit the part of Wolverine through six X-Men films and three solo adventures. Jackman really made that role his own, and Logan was a fitting place to step aside from the character that made him into a star. But by Jackman’s own admission, his initial performance fell short because he didn’t know that wolverines really exist.

Via Page Six, Jackson recalled that he spent a few weeks researching wolves after he was cast in the very first X-Men movie. That led director Bryan Singer to ask Jackman about the wolf-like qualities that he gave his character. “[Singer] said, ‘Are you sort of walking funny, what’s going on?,'” recalled Jackman. “And I said, ‘I’ve been doing this thing with wolves,’ and he goes, ‘You know you’re not a wolf, right?’ I said, ‘Well, there’s no such thing as a wolverine.’” According to Jackman, Singer replied “’Go to the zoo, dude,’” before Jackman added that he “literally didn’t know it existed.”

For the record, wolverines are very real, and they are a very fitting name for Logan’s superhero alter ego. Wolverines are known to be especially ferocious and strong, with a reputation for killing prey that are much larger in size than they are. Wolverines are also loners that resemble small bears, even though they are more closely related to the Mustelidae family. But nobody would ever call Logan a weasel to his face!

In the end, it all worked out for the best. But hopefully Jackman’s inevitable replacement will also be aware of actual wolverines before stepping into the role.

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Images: 20th Century Fox/Marvel