With X-Men: Dark Phoenix opening next week, there’s been a lot of talk going around about the mutant crew. One of the most popular examples of that has been a recent fan petition asking that Danny DeVito take on the role of Wolverine should he ever pop up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But promoting Rocketman, X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn told Coming Soon about a candidate for the role he wished we could’ve seen had he been allowed to produce a trilogy:
“My plan was “First Class,” then second film was new young Wolverine in the 70’s to continue those characters, my version of the X-Men…When I finished the “Days of Future Past” script with it ready to go I looked at it and said, “I really think it would be fun to cast Tom Hardy or someone as the young Wolverine and then bring it all together at the end.”
That’s right. It looks like the director had his eyes on English actor Tom Hardy to play the knuckle-fisted beast.
At the time First Class came out in 2011, Hardy was still up and starting, with only one big role in Christopher Nolan’s Inception. But surely, it was his menacing performance as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises the next year that caught Vaughn’s attention.
Given that the director was never allowed to complete his own X-Men trilogy, we obviously never got to see Hardy as Wolverine, though the idea is certainly interesting. The character would continue to be played by Hugh Jackman all the way until Logan in 2017, where at least that version of the hero met his gruesome end.
Ever since then, there’ve been debates about who, if anyone, should play Wolverine next. So far, fans have imagined what Sons of Anarchy‘s Charles Hunnam, and Harry Potter‘s Daniel Radcliffe could look like as the character. But nothing official has been decided, and likely won’t be for a long time to come.
Tell us, though, do you wish Tom Hardy had played Wolverine? Or is there another actor you would’ve rather seen in the role? Go ahead and make your case in the comments section below.