Patrick Stewart Says Logan Is The Best Goodbye To Professor X

Patrick Stewart has revealed the moment when he knew that Logan was the time for him to say goodbye to Charles Xavier. Stewart, like Hugh Jackman, has played his famous X-Men character for 17 years, encompassing seven movies. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stewart said it was Jackman's announcement that he was leaving the part that made him realize that maybe it was time for him to step down as well.

"This only struck me as forcefully when we premiered the movie in Berlin at the festival," he said. "And I sat alongside Hugh Jackman, who is on record saying this is his last appearance as Wolverine. It made it a fairly memorable and intense and needless to say emotional moment... Whether or not there could possibly be another movie in which Charles Xavier existed, there could never be a better way of saying goodbye to the franchise than this film. And so that's where I am."

Stewart's statements obviously don't close the door completely to another appearance, but with the very well-received Logan likely marking an end to superhero films as we know them, it makes sense that he would depart. For Stewart, Logan was also a fitting ending because of the special relevance of its plot about outsiders trying to find a safe space in today's political climate. "Life is imitating art, because the world has caught up with our subject matter," he said. "There is one dominant objective for all the good characters in the movie. They want to reach a border, to cross it and to be safe on the other side. We are living in a world where thousands of people are attempting to do just that. And there are a lot of people who are bent on not just stopping them, but destroying them."

"That is at the very heart of the X-Men franchise," he continued. "Given that we now have an administration here in D.C. who are intent on pursuing a policy which will not just slam the door on refugees and others who wish to live in the United States, but we're building walls to keep them out. We are isolating ourselves against these people, but in doing so, against the rest of the world and the otherness of people, whether it's color of skin, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual makeup is now considered 'other' and suspicious. In this respect, we are hurtling backward and not forward, although the objective is to 'Make America Great Again,' it is having exactly the opposite effect."

On a lighter note, Stewart also commented on his next big movie role, voicing the Poop Emoji in The Emoji Movie. In response to critics questioning why someone as famous as Stewart would want to take on the part, he replied, "Are you saying that poop is not dignified? I take offense at that remark! I got a call from my agents. They said, 'Listen, something rather unusual has come up.' I met with the producers, and I was amused and charmed and very happy to take on this role."

Logan, which will be released Friday, has already raked in $9.5 million at the box office, beating out X-Men: Apocalypse and Doctor Strange in early previews. Now that Jackman is (supposedly) done with Wolverine, see who we think should play the character next.