Fox’s early X-Men films were the foundation upon which Marvel Studios’ endeavors are built. It can be argued that the main protagonist of the franchise was The Wolverine, a role essayed to perfection by Hugh Jackman.
However, famously, Bryan Singer, who was responsible for realizing the X-Men for a live-action feature-length setting, banned comics on set. This was because Singer wanted everyone on set to look at these characters as three-dimensional figures, as opposed to the caricatures that he thought appeared in the comics.
Hugh Jackman needed to read the X-Men comics
Bryan Singer banned comics on set, but Hugh Jackman was not familiar with the source material. However, Kevin Feige, who was an associate producer then, came to his rescue. Speaking with Josh Horowitz, Hugh Jackman revealed how he got his hands on X-Men comics on a ‘no-comic book on-set’ comic book film. He said:
So I would go into Kevin Feige’s office, and I was like ‘Kevin,’ and there was like wall to wall, not only comics all over the, like, posters, but about 600 figurines of different characters, and I’ll be like ‘What should I read, what should I read?’ He would say ‘You gotta read this, you gotta read the Japan, you gotta read the origins’ And so he was slipping me stuff, and we have stayed friends ever since.
Kevin Feige, being a part of the brass over at Hollywood was a nice change of pace for Hugh Jackman, given that he has seen the passion the producer has for comics. About 24 years since X-Men, Hugh Jackman has become synonymous with the character of Wolverine, but the actor might not be able to play the character for long. While there are plenty of jokes in Deadpool & Wolverine about Hugh Jackman playing the part until he is 90, Marvel might be keen on casting a different actor to carry the role into the future of the MCU.
Henry Cavill could take the torch forward was Wolverine in the MCU
While Hugh Jackman has been the quintessential Wolverine for over two decades, the MCU might benefit from some younger talent taking up the mantle of Wolverine for the decade to come. Considering that they would need someone to play Wolverine for at least the next 15 years ahead of the Studio, Henry Cavill, who is currently 44, might be the right choice for the part.
Alternatively, the studio can cast a young actor, perhaps someone in their late 30s, to allow Dafne Keen to be X-23 as well. This would make the X-Men infinitely more available to the MCU, allowing them to stick around for longer, as opposed to actors like Hugh Jackman, who have talked about the physical toll their characters take on them.
