The writers of Deadpool 3 have talked about who they think should take over from Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the MCU, saying the role should go to an unknown actor.
Hugh Jackman first appeared as Wolverine in 2000’s X-Men, before bowing out in Logan in 2017. Alongside Patrick Stewart, who portrayed Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men franchise, this saw Jackman set a world record for the longest career as a live-action superhero (the record would later be beaten by Tobey Maguire thanks to his Spider-Man: No Way Home return in 2021, before Stewart reclaimed it alone with this year’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). Jackman’s lengthy spell in the role, which only he has played in live action, makes him a tough act to follow.
Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox means the film rights to the X-Men have now come home to Marvel. As such, the studio is expected to reboot the franchise in the not-too-distant future, which brings with it the daunting task of casting a new Wolverine.
Cutting Logan Down To Size
Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers of Deadpool 3, recently spoke about who they thought should take over as Wolverine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Deadpool franchise is believed to be the only Fox-produced X-Men series that is being carried over into the MCU, Ryan Reynolds’ take on the Merc with a Mouth proving too popular to drop. Deadpool’s long shared history with Wolverine in the comics may give Reese and Wernick more insight into what qualities Marvel should be looking for.
The Deadpool writing duo first joked that Marvel should simply focus on getting a shorter actor to play Wolverine. While Hugh Jackman stands at 6’3″, Wolverine is famously diminutive in the comics, his official height being given as 5’3″, a full foot shorter than Jackman. This has been a sticking point for some fans, though clearly the writers’ joke is that Jackman was an excellent choice for the role regardless of height, indicating that such factors shouldn’t be prioritized by Marvel. Reese said of Marvel’s Wolverine casting:
“It’s gotta be someone shorter this time… So maybe a Zack Galifianakis or Patton Oswalt, someone like that… I don’t know. Look, we don’t have any inside information on that. Even if we did, we couldn’t share it, but we don’t… I would honestly go more… an undiscovered person, because Hugh Jackman was reasonably undiscovered the first time and I think there was initial bucking [of], ‘Oh, he’s too tall,’ or, ‘He doesn’t look right,’ or, ‘What is this Australian thing?’ I think that if they’re playing their cards right, they probably should make it someone we’ve never seen.”
There has been no official word yet on any of Marvel’s plans for Wolverine and the X-Men in the MCU. The only glimpse of the mutants to have made it into an MCU movie so far has been the introduction of an alternate version of Patrick Stewart’s Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Here is the synopsis for Marvel Studios’ most recent film and the most recent appearance of an X-Man, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness:
The MCU unlocks the Multiverse and pushes its boundaries further than ever before. Journey into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.
Directed by Sam Raimi from a script written by Michael Waldron, the Marvel film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, with Michael Stuhlbarg, Rachel McAdams, John Krasinski, and Patrick Stewart.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is available now on Digital and Disney Plus, and will arrive on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on July 18th. Stay tuned for all the latest news regarding the future of Wolverine and the X-Men in the MCU, and subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.
Source: Post-Credit Podcast (via The Direct)