He’s the best there is at what he does. And what he does is drop tantalizing clues about a possible return to playing Wolverine.

He, in this case, is Hugh Jackman. While you were enjoying July 4th Observed with barbecues and fireworks, Jackman was posting some eyebrow-raising photos to his Instagram story. The first was a shot of Wolverine’s claws. The second was a shot of Jackman with Marvel President Kevin Feige.

Jackman began playing Wolverine more than 20 years ago in the very first X-Men movie and continued through 2017’s Logan. At that time, he said he was ready to retire from the role because he was getting older and with each passing year and film, it got harder and harder to keep up that outrageous superhero physique. With Logan, he got to make a very satisfying final Wolverine story, and a final X-Men story at the same time. What did he even have left to do at that point?

Well, for one thing, Marvel now owns the rights — and Feige now controls the rights — to the X-Men movie franchise, meaning Jackman could finally hook up with the Avengers or other Marvel heroes. Thus far, the company has yet to announce any specific plans for X-Men films or shows, but it’s something they’re almost certainly working on already. They could want a clean slate with a fresh batch of actors and characters. Or they could want some kind of connection to the old series.

If they really want Jackman (current age: 52) back as Wolverine, there is comics precedent to draw on. The Logan movie was very loosely based on a series called Old Man Logan, about an aging Wolverine in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. For a while, a version of that Wolverine wound up joining the main group of X-Men in the Marvel Comics Universe. It’s not hard to imagine a similar storyline in an MCU X-Men movie, and Jackman playing that version of the character.

Or maybe Hugh Jackman just really liked this piece of art and this photo of Kevin Feige! Time will tell.

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