Hugh Jackman spent 17 years spanning across nine movies, before retiring from his portrayal of the adamantium claws wielding Wolverine.
Shortly after Logan released in theaters, marking the last cinematic appearance of Jackman as the X-Men character, the Australian actor confessed that it wouldn’t be long before 20th Century Fox would start thinking about a Wolverine reboot.
However, all that was before the Disney deal and now that it has happened, fans have been clamoring for Jackman to return and play the clawed mutant for one more time.
However, the actor is not sold on that idea, and he stated earlier this week that “I think, unfortunately, the ship has sailed for me, but for someone else, I would like to see Wolverine in there.” Thus, he is definitely open to the idea of Wolverine being a part of the MCU, and now that Disney has acquired Fox, that is going to happen. However, the big question is: who will play the role of the X-Men hero when he returns to the big screen?
This question is unlikely to be answered for a long time to come, however, when he was questioned about his choice of an heir to play the character, a few years ago, Jackman had said the following:
“I haven’t really given it a lot of thought. I’ve been asked that question a lot, and I’m always like, ‘I don’t want to make it too easy on the studio to replace me.’ [Laughs]
I’ve still got one more to do, though I’m sure they’re already talking about it and there’s some actor out there who they’ve said, ‘Shh, keep it quiet, we want you next!’ He’s younger than me for sure, so I think Tom Hardy could be great.”
The star from Mad Max: Fury Road is definitely a superb replacement. However, it is another thing whether he would be interested in playing Wolverine. In case he is, then it might all fall into place. He was earlier supposed to play the role of a young Wolverine in a film by Matthew Vaughn, but, that was back then. Also, we must note that when Jackman had mentioned him 2015, Hardy wasn’t associated with Venom.
We agree that it is no longer out of the question to play two different comic book characters in Hollywood, however, he seems to have committed big time to Sony’s Spiderverse, and we don’t know if he has any time left for dating Disney. Also, even if they do get set to introduce the Wolverine into the MCU, the film is unlikely to take off at least until 2020, or maybe much later.
For now, the only thing to do is to speculate. However, it is undeniable that Tom Hardy would be a superb Wolverine. There are not a lot of actors suited to such a role, because Hugh Jackman had been brilliant, but, the Dunkirk star is one such name that the audience wouldn’t be offended with. We just hope that Disney understands this too.
