Hugh Jackman has cemented himself as Wolverine for a generation. After all, the actor has been playing the character for about two decades now. He will soon make the jump to the MCU as the clawed hero in Deadpool 3 opposite Ryan Reynolds. So it won’t be wrong to say that fans will have a hard time imagining anyone else in the role.
It’s rumored that Deadpool 3 is supposed to act as a farewell to Jackman before the MCU brings in its own Wolverine star. That actor, whoever it ultimately is, will have huge shoes to fill. But if things had gone a little differently, we would have originally seen either a The Lord of the Rings actor or a Mission: Impossible star in the role of Jackman’s Marvel hero.
The Lord Of The Rings Star Was Initially Courted For The Role Of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine
In February 2021, on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Viggo Mortensen revealed that he was given the script for the role of Wolverine in Fox’s X-Men franchise. But he gave that up because he didn’t want to commit to playing one character over several years and also because his son, Henry, wasn’t entirely convinced that they were adapting the character right. He said:
“The thing that bothered me at the time was just the commitment of endless movies of that same character over and over. I was nervous about that. And also there were some things — I mean, they straightened most of them out, but I did take Henry to the meeting I had with the director as my sort of good luck charm and guide. In the back of my mind, I was thinking he could learn something, too, because I did let Henry read the script and he goes, ‘This is wrong. That’s not how it is.'”
The actor then elaborated on what went down during the meeting. Mortensen saw the director, Bryan Singer, explain to his 10-year-old son why he was adapting the character in that manner. The star said,
“Henry had strong feelings about the way Wolverine would be portrayed on the big screen. All of a sudden, the director is falling all over himself and then the rest of the meeting was him explaining in detail to Henry why he was taking certain liberties.”
When his son asked if Singer and co., would make any changes to the character, the actor knew they probably wouldn’t. But then again, he was not interested in a role he would be stuck in for years. But the Green Book star was amused by the hypocrisy in his comment because, as per him, “A couple of years later, I’m doing three Lord of the Rings [movies].”
However, filming for the three The Lord of the Rings films took place back-to-back over nine months. So it’s nowhere near the time Hugh Jackman has devoted to the role. But he wasn’t the only actor who was chosen for the role before Jackman came on board.
Mission: Impossible II Star Almost Played The Role Of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine
Variety reported back in 2000 that Scottish actor Dougray Scott was cast in the role of Wolverine, but he had to drop out. It’s because he was then filming Mission: Impossible II and was ideally supposed to jump into filming X-Men right after. But due to unexpected production delays, the filming of M: I 2 got pushed and Fox could no longer wait for the actor. So they cast Hugh Jackman and the rest is history. The site wrote:
“The shoot has gone longer than expected, and Scott lost a few days with a shoulder injury. Director Bryan Singer had even pushed Wolverine’s scenes till a later date to accommodate Scott’s schedule, but it didn’t work. Even though X-Men had begun production late last month, Fox was holding out hope until the last minute that Paramount would be able to give a stop date for Scott on M: I: 2 so he could join the cast in Toronto this week.”
But that didn’t happen. Instead, “In the whirlwind casting change, Jackman’s deal was finalized late last week so he could be fitted for his claws over the weekend. He will begin rehearsals and action choreography today.”
As for Scott, he put the loss of such a great opportunity squarely on Tom Cruise’s shoulders. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph he expressed:
“Tom Cruise didn’t let me do it. We were doing Mission: Impossible and he was like, ‘You’ve got to stay and finish the film’ and I said I will, but I’ll go and do that as well. For whatever reason he said I couldn’t. He was a very powerful guy. Other people were doing everything to make it work.”
But the actor has no beef with Jackman and loves how he portrayed the character. It now remains to be seen who will take over the reins of the clawed hero in the future.
The X-Men films are streaming on Disney+, and Deadpool 3 will be released on 8 November 2024.
Source Happy Sad Confused
