It’s been more than a decade since the X-Men franchise got a restart with X-Men: First Class. While the cast was filled with some of Hollywood’s current A-listers, there was a callback to the original trilogy with a surprise cameo from Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. His cameo linked the reboot to the 2000s films. Since then, Jackman has retracted his claws and moved on. With the X-Men now part of the MCU, fan castings, including Wolverine, have been popping up all over the internet. One more voice has been added to the chorus – X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn. He offered his top three choices to replace the Reminiscence star.
With Jackman retiring from playing Logan, casting a new Wolverine has been on the tips of tongues after Disney acquired 20th Century Fox. It’s bound to happen as the fan-favorite X-Man and his fellow cohorts will join the Marvel fold, according to Kevin Feige. With their introduction years down the line, Matthew Vaughn gave his opinion to Comic Book on who could step into the X-Men alum’s shoes.
Well, he's got older now, but I would say Tom Hardy would have...been awesome. I think Taron [Egerton] could do it in his sleep. Aaron Taylor-Johnson could do it as well. I mean, I think Aaron or Taron would be my first two choices could do it really well.
The King’s Man director gave some top-notch options. Having worked with Taron Egerton on the Kingsman franchise, Vaughn could vouch for his physicality and work ethic. Of course, Hugh Jackman will always be Wolverine to multiple generations. But, unlike Jackman, Egerton has the right stature and look to pull off the beloved character. The Rocketman star and The Greatest Showman star share some commonalities like their showmanship so Egerton taking up the mantle from Jackman wouldn’t be a major deal.
Tom Hardy and Aaron Taylor-Johnson were great choices as well. Just like the Kingsman star, Hardy and Taylor-Johnson have experience in the action genre with the former playing Bane and Venom in The Dark Knight Rises and the Venom series respectively. And the latter actor took on speedster Pietro Maximoff in the MCU. Of course, both actors might be hard to recruit as they are part of the Sony Spideyverse with the Capone star committed to Eddie Brock and the Tenet actor taking on Kraven the Hunter.
Maybe if things work out Matthew Vaughn could be asked to restart the X-Men franchise again. Feige already brought Sam Raimi back into the fold. So, one of these actors could be a possibility. Of course, Vaughn has been busy with The King’s Man, which arrives in theaters on Dec. 22. But until that wish becomes a reality, you can hop over to Disney+ to relive the greatness of X-Men: First Class.
