Hugh Jackman is high on X-Men: Days of Future Past—and for good reason.
The forthcoming blockbuster, the seventh installment in the X-Men series, finds the Aussie actor reprising his signature role as Wolverine for an epic tale involving time travel—something Jackman waxed ecstatic about when E! News caught up with him at the annual Angel Ball benefit in New York City Tuesday night.
"As excited as [the fans] are, I can tell you it'll exceed those expectations. I feel it's that good. I'm very, very excited about it," he tells us, adding that director Bryan Singer "has knocked it out of the park."
Days of Future Past reunites Jackman with his castmates from the original X-Men trilogy including Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Halle Berry and brings them all together with the ensemble of 2011's prequel, X-Men: First Class, for which he did a brief cameo. The latter features James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence playing younger versions of seminal X-Men characters.
The trailer for the new movie just hit the web this week and, this being a time travel flick, the plot has the Hollywood star's adamantium-infused hero bridging two time periods as he heads into the past to gain the younger mutants' help to change the future and save their species from certain death.
And if you ask Jackman, pumping himself up to sink his claws into Wolverine for the seventh time has yet to get old for the thespian.
"He's like a best friend, Wolverine. He's the beginning of my career here in America and he's still there," Jackman tells E! News. "It's been 14 years and I can't believe it. And I love the character. I love playing him and I'm probably loving him more than ever."
Added Hugh's wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, with a laugh: "And I really enjoy sleeping with him. He's a little hirsute but cute."
Jackman and his missus were in town for last night's Angel Ball, which not only honored his mother-in-law, Fay Duncan, president of the Oz-based Fight Cancer Foundation, but also raised nearly $3 million for cancer research. Performers at the event included Usher, Pharrell Williams and Chaka Khan.
X-Men: Days of Future Past hits theaters on May 23, 2014.
—Reporting by James Chairman