"Without you guys, I wouldn't have a career," Jackman told an energized crowd, who had gathered to see Keanu Reeves promote The Day the Earth Stood Still and Mark Wahlberg talk about Max Payne.

The party-crashing Jackman, muttonchops-free and just off a plane from Australia, offered a shout-out to Wolverine creator Len Wein and waded into the audience to shake hands with the comics vet.

Sneak-peek footage from the flick, due May 2009, had a few surprises as well:

Most notable were the glimpses at Wolverine's mutant costars, including Gambit (Friday Night Lights' Taylor Kitsch), Kestrel (will.i.am) and Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds). "You're going to see a lot of beserker rage," Jackman promised the jacked-up crowd, obviously hungry to see more of Wolverine's hard-to-cage anger.

The clip's money shot, according to fan reaction: Wolverine facing off against archrival Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber), and declaring, "I'm going to cut your goddamned head off. See if that works."

Yes, Hugh, in fact it does.