Patrick Stewart to retire from ‘X-Men’ franchise

MANILA, Philippines – It’s the end of an era! Patrick Stewart will no longer play Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men movies.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Patrick made the announcement at a SiriusXM Town Hall, where he appeared with Logan director James Mangold and co-star Hugh Jackman.

Logan, the upcoming X-Men movie about Logan (aka Wolverine) that’s set in a post-apocalypic world with no mutants, is also Hugh’s last X-Men film.

At the Town Hall, Patrick recalled watching the movie in Berlin with James and Hugh, and getting emotional about it.

“Maybe it was the company of these two guys, but the movie ended and — this is an admission — but at one point [Hugh] reached out, and he took my hand in those last few minutes, and I saw him go [mimes wiping a tear from his eye] like this, and then I realized I had just done the same thing,” he said.

In the few minutes before he and Hugh got up to make a speech, Patrick said he came to the realization that he was done with the series.

“So, we had some time to sit there and, as I sat there I realized 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. So, I told [Hugh] that same evening, ‘I’m done too. It’s all over.'”

Patrick has played Professor Xavier in 7 of the X-Men movies, including Logan, and has been with the franchise since 2000. Hugh, on the other hand, has been in 9 of the movies since 2000.

Logan will open in Philippine theaters on March 1. – Rappler.com