It may be difficult to imagine the adamantium-clawed mutant being played by a different actor, but there was a time when Hugh Jackman did not own the role.
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige recalls that Jackman was “rejected initially” to be Wolverine in X-Men (2000), with Dougray Scott landing the role.
“In my memory, one of the main reasons was that he was too tall. Wolverine in the comics is sometimes called 'Lil' Fireplugs'. He's a short guy,” Feige says. At 1.88 meters, the Australian actor is 28cm taller than the comic book character.
Scott eventually had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with his other project, Mission: Impossible 2. Jackman would then secure the career-defining role, appearing as Wolverine in nine movies over two decades, and becoming one of the most recognisable superhero actors.
Feige and Jackman go a long way back in the Marvel universe
Then, an associate producer, Kevin Feige, first met Jackman during his reaudition, which the actor thought he failed. Jackman shares, "I said, 'Kevin, we all know I'm not getting the part. You don't have to do dinner. But no, he sat in there and had a steak dinner with me and then drove me to the airport... I thought, I'll never see him again."
Clearly mistaken, their paths will cross again, with Feige having a major role in the future of the mutant character in the MCU after Disney acquired 20th Century Fox.
Feige had doubts about Jackman’s return, careful of how it might affect Wolverine's legacy set up in Logan (2017). “I said, ‘Let me give you a piece of advice, Hugh. Don’t come back,’” he said in a separate interview. “‘You had the greatest ending in history with Logan. That’s not something we should undo.’”
Now, Feige, seemingly having a complete change of heart, greenlit Deadpool & Wolverine as the formal introduction of Marvel’s band of merry mutants into the MCU.
“The notion that, all these years later, we're in a world where [Jackman] is Wolverine, and Deadpool and all of those X-Men characters are together under the same roof, is a pretty amazing quarter-of-a-century experience," Feige says.
Deadpool & Wolverine arrives in cinemas later this month.