Logan stars Hugh Jackman and Sir Patrick Stewart bid 'au-revoir' to their superhero characters

Hugh Jackman has told Sky News he his hanging up his claws after 17 years playing Hollywood's longest-running superhero.

The 48-year-old actor, who plays Wolverine in James Mangold's new movie Logan, said he has "put everything" into the Marvel character.

"In terms of who I am as a person it's been almost impossible to actually kind of disseminate where Hugh Jackman stops and Wolverine starts," he said.

"I've put everything into this."

Jackman has been playing the reluctant-hero mutant for almost two decades, since Bryan Singer's X-Men film in 2000.

Since then, eight other movies have followed, either from the X-Men series or Wolverine solo sagas, one of which Mangold himself directed.

But with Logan, Mangold wanted to distance himself from previous instalments.

Bloodier, more human and with an adult-only R-rating, this is the Wolverine Jackman said he "had been waiting for".

"From the moment I read it, I knew there was something great about this character. Something very three-dimensional and layered and interesting and that he had demons and his demons were as dark as his claws were sharp," he said.

"I just never had a chance to explore that until this movie, I think."

In the movie - taking place in a near future, when mutants have been extinct - Logan is a washed-out hero whose regenerative power is fading away.

Jackman, who earlier this year had his sixth basal cell carcinoma removed from his nose, said he related to a character who is "finally vulnerable".

"I understand things don't regenerate as quickly," he said.

"Every time I go to the gym I'm soaring more than I used to when I was 30 but you know things like this aren't as dramatic as they seem," he added.

"We're all aware that we're vulnerable and that's part of being human. In this film, I'm playing a character who is finally vulnerable."

Logan presents itself less as a superhero blockbuster and more like a road movie, firmly rooted in its western inspirations.

On the verge of losing his power, Logan and his ageing mentor - played by Sir Patrick Stewart - set out to save the mutant gene, found in a young Mexican girl.

This is Sir Patrick's sixth time playing Professor Charles Xavier and he told Sky News he believes it will be his last too.

"Hugh has long been on record saying this is his last time as Logan but that was never any kind of consideration that made me feel the same way," he explained.

"But then I saw the movie for the first time, and I realised very, very potently and emotionally that there has to be no other choice for me," he added.

"The 'au revoir' that these heroes made and in a sense that Charles Xavier does in this movie I think it's so affecting and powerful that there is no way it could be improved."

The 76-year-old actor says he is ready to take on new challenges - starting with an animated movie about Emojis, in which he voices the character Poop.

"People keep telling me my acting is s***," the actor joked.

"Now I have a chance to prove it."

Logan opens in UK theatres on 1 March.