Hugh Jackman Shirtless covers EW!

Does Hugh Jackman ever slow down? From what we can report, the answer is a definitive no way, mate. For the cover story of our annual Summer Must List issue, EW visited the actor last year on the Sydney set of The Wolverine (in theaters July 26), where Jackman jumped and leapt and charmed his way through a series of seemingly back-breaking stunts that he made look as easy as pie. That’s entertainment — and who embodies the power and pop of summer in the cinema better than Jackman?

This is the epically buff, 44-year-old Australian’s sixth time at bat as Wolverine, and as he tells EW, he wants to make sure fans (and newcomers) walk away from the newest installment better acquainted with the elusive anti-hero than they might have after 2009’s critical dud X-Men Origins: Wolverine. “Somehow the first Wolverine movie ended up looking like the fourth X-Men – just with different characters,” he says. “I left unsure if we’d achieve our goal, which was to make sure people understood my character. This movie will really get to his core.”