Hugh Jackman in Logan
Hugh Jackman reportedly accepted a lower salary in order for Logan to keep its R-rating 20th Century Fox/YouTube

Having first brought the character to life on the big screen way back in 2000, it's hard to think of Wolverine without Hugh Jackman popping into your head. The Australian actor's portrayal is a favourite among superhero fans, which means 20th Century Fox would have likely paid him the big bucks for his upcoming final outing as the X-Men character, Logan. But it turns out, he's getting a more modest pay cheque than some might think...

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According to Uproxx (via Ain't It Cool's Eric Vespe), director James Mangold recently revealed that Jackman accepted a lower salary to reprise his role on the big screen, so the film would be able to maintain its R-rating. Why? Traditionally, R-rated films don't perform as well as PG-13/12A outings at the box office, simply because it narrows down the potential audience significantly, so Jackman's paycut likely helped Fox justify Logan's R-rating from a financial perspective.

That's not to say R-rated films – particularly Marvel Comics-based ones – can't fare well at the box office. Earlier this year, Deadpool starring Ryan Reynolds was a huge commercial success and made an impressive $782.6m (£615m).

In previous instalment, The Wolverine, which was released in 2013, Jackman received $20m. While it's unknown what his starting wage was this final time, it seems fair to assume that it would have been around the same mark, or even a little higher, had he not gone for a paycut.

Talking about the freedom that an R-rating allowed the film creatively, Mangold stated in an earlier interview: "[It represents] to me the kind of aggressive, classical Wolverine action that we want in the movie – more of something that fans have been asking for, for a really long time. We've been limited in one way or another from giving it to them, but I think we've got the go-ahead to really go for it on this picture.

"So we're really trying to deliver what folks have always imagined those kind of battles would look like. There is a lot of high-octane action in the movie. We're just trying to do it very differently and very viscerally."

Also starring Stephen Merchant, Boyd Holbrook, Dafne Keen, Richard E Grant and Patrick Stewart, who will reprise his role as Professor Charles Xavier, Logan will be released in UK cinemas on 24 February 2017. It will come out in the US on 3 March.

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