It’s hard to imagine now, but it was no shoe-in that Hugh Jackman would become Wolverine in the Marvel films.

Jackman confessed to Entertainment Weekly that he was utterly convinced he had blown his audition for the role in 2000’s X-Men film.

Enter Kevin Feige, who is now the President of Marvel Studios, but back then was a producer’s assistant. He invited Jackman to dinner with him and the screenwriter, and drove Jackman to the airport after.

Jackman recalled the moment.

“I said, ‘Kevin, we all know I’m not getting the part. You don’t have to do dinner.’ But no, he sat in there and had a steak dinner with me and then drove me to the airport. I’ll never forget it. That was the nicest thing. I thought, I’ll never see him again.”

Wrong.

Jackman, of course, ended up as Wolverine, playing the character nine different times ahead of the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine.

The Kevin Feige-produced Deadpool & Wolverine will hit theaters nationwide on July 26th.