When it comes to the X-Men, the most recognisable character of the series has got to be Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman.

While the series has gone through some ups and downs over the years, the recent sale of Fox to Disney means that the upcoming 'X-Men: Dark Phoenix' will be the final chapter in its current guise and cast. While Hugh Jackman finished out his tenure with the excellent 'Logan', he may have possibly ended his time with the character much sooner than we initially thought.

In an interview with ComingSoon.net, Matthew Vaughn - who directed 'X-Men: First Class' - explained that he had a much different idea in mind for Wolverine, and a completely different actor in the role for the sequel. Vaughn's plan was to continue with the new characters into the '70s, with the sequel introducing a new actor in the role of Logan / Wolverine - none other than Tom Hardy.

"So you’d really get to know all of them, and my finale was gonna be 'Days of Future Past'. That was gonna be my number three where you bring them all… because what’s bigger than bringing in McKellen and Michael and Stewart and James and bringing them all together? When I finished the 'Days of Future Past' script with it ready to go I looked at it and said, ‘I really think it would be fun to cast Tom Hardy or someone as the young Wolverine and then bring it all together at the end.’ Fox read 'Days of Future Past' and went ‘Oh, this is too good! We’re doing it now!'"

Vaughn didn't hold back on his opinions on where the franchise eventually ended up, arguing that "Hollywood doesn’t understand pacing."

"Their executives are driving 100 miles-per-hour looking in the rear-view mirror and not understanding why they crash," said Vaughn. He's not wrong, in fairness. One of the reasons why 'Justice League' was such a failure was simply because the fact that it didn't lay the groundwork to bring such a disparate variety of characters together. Not only that, trying to get Batman and Superman to fight one another - in the second movie, no less - was never going to work.

'X-Men: Dark Phoenix' lands in Irish cinemas on June 5th.