Hugh Jackman is about to say goodbye to a role that made him a star, and that he made iconic in the history of film. How does anybody follow that in the future? Logan director James Mangold has an idea. Of course, his idea is not doing anything with Wolverine, possibly ever again. Mangold was asked who else could possibly play the role and in no uncertain terms, the director said nobody and even compared trying to cast Wolverine today to casting one of the biggest roles in the history of drama.
I don't think anyone should ever play Wolverine again. I'm not going to cast Hamlet. Maybe someone else in ten years can play him.
So there you have it. Trying to dream cast a new Wolverine is the equivalent of trying to cast Shakespeare. At the same time, it's difficult to argue the point. Hugh Jackman became Wolverine over the last decade and a half and so perfectly embodied the role, height notwithstanding, that we certainly can't imagine anybody else trying to play the part. The interviewer for BadTaste.It suggests Tom Hardy, who might not be a bad choice, but how does he, or anybody, take on the role without being compared, unfavorably, to Jackman?
Nobody knows what the future holds for the Wolverine character. There's apparently an entire X-Men movie filming later this year that nobody knew about so it seems that Fox has been decently good at keeping their cards close to their vest when it comes to the franchise. Certainly, one would think that there are a couple different feelings pulling against each other here. Wolverine has always been an incredibly popular character, he was before Jackman ever portrayed him on screen, so you'd think Fox would want to bring him back sooner, rather than later. Having said that, letting Jackman's portrayal fade from memory is the best thing they could do to give a new Wolverine a chance, and the longer the wait, the better, as far as that goes.
The best move might be to wait until the inevitable reboot of the entire X-Men franchise. At some point, the current films will likely be relaunched in their entirety. When you recast everybody, you can recast Wolverine. Since there are plans to keep making X-Men movies for the next several years, we can hope that there won't be any plans to bring a new Logan into the existing universe.
What do you think? When is the right time to put a new Wolverine on screen? Or do you agree with James Mangold that it should never be done? Let us know in the comments.
