Picture the year 2005, when the fascination with superheroes was beginning to bubble, and X-Men’s Hugh Jackman was at the helm with his iconic Wolverine. To capitalize on this phenomenon, a curiously omitted scene in Fantastic Four (2005) was scripted that would have combined Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic’s (Ioan Gruffudd) elastic abilities with Wolverine’s gruff persona. This daring, face-morphing experiment accumulated layers of both entertainment and terror.
How did it turn out? The worst ever—completely awful!
In case you did not know, Jackman’s Wolverine appeared to have made a cameo appearance in Tim Story’s film Fantastic Four, which was thankfully cut. You will realize why the scene was cut after watching it. Still, if they had included it in the film, that would have been crazy!
Fantastic Four: A Scary Deleted Scene Featured Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine
An old-cut scene from the $333.5 million 2005 flick Fantastic Four gave us a very illusory peek at an MCU-style crossover before Kevin Feige’s eye could even recognize Phase 1.
The original plan was for Ioan Gruffudd’s character, Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, to transform his face into Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of Logan by using his stretchy abilities. However, in the theatrical version, Reed simply raises his chin when discussing the type of man Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) wants him to be.
Clearly, that was left out of the final draft. Fox maintained the uniqueness of its superhero movies, such as X-Men and Fantastic Four. Thus, it would have been a fairly simple cameo to pull off since Fox owned the film rights to both the Fantastic Four and the X-Men at the time.
Marvel Studios produced the MCU and Iron Man, which changed Hollywood forever a few years later. This is an intriguing “what-if” that would have blown our tiny minds back then.
Significance of Hugh Jackman’s Presence in Fantastic Four (2005)
Though Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine made a fleeting cameo in the heavily criticized 2005 Fantastic Four movie, it has some wide-ranging implications. Before the establishment of the now-successful MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Marvel Studios was trying hard to make an impact at the box office, and most of their tries were not as successful.
The films that existed before the MCU have now been rebranded as “Marvel Legacy films”. When Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, morphed his face into Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine from the X-Men films, it confirmed the presence of a shared universe.
Logan/Wolverine’s cameo might also mean that X-Men and the mutants existed on the Fantastic Four’s earth. Reed Richards and Charles Xavier are also part of a secret group called the Illuminati in the comics, and the Baxter Building and Xavier’s Institute for Mutants have often shared resources and collaborated. If the legacy films had been successful, we might have seen a growing dynamic between the two, and a future team-up, much like the Avengers.
Fantastic Four, streaming on Disney Plus.
