Marvel Studios is thinking about a new actor to play Wolverine, as longtime X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner offers an update. At the recent Television Critics Association press tour Donner confirmed that Marvel has started thinking about looking for a new Wolverine:
“Yes, because Hugh, just the physicality of it all, just to bulk up, this man worked so hard to bulk up… his natural state, they used to call him ‘worm’ when he was a kid, his natural state is a very skinny guy. And once you reach a certain age, the body just won’t go anymore, and I think he was wise to say, ‘I’m at that point, I can’t do it.’ That doesn’t mean he can’t come back as older Wolverine – you never know. Future Wolverine, you never know. I don’t know what Kevin’s thinking, honestly. I don’t even think Kevin knows yet, I think Kevin’s still dealing with this wealth of characters and trying to make sense of it all.”
At the same time, it was also said that additional movies such as New Mutants and Gambit might not happen and also that the X-Men actors and characters would get rebooted because Disney wouldn’t want to pay the actors their huge and expensive contracts (Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique or Michael Fassbender as Magneto). All the X-Men will come under Kevin Feige at Marvel Studios. This implies that X-Men will be brought into the current Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Disney CEO Bob Iger explains, “I want to be careful here because of what’s been communicated to the Fox folks, but I think they know. It only makes sense for Marvel to be supervised by one entity. There shouldn’t be two Marvels.” Sounds like a reboot clearly.
Kevin Feige head of Marvel Studios must be excited to fold the X-Men into the MCU and create great stories for later crossovers with characters like the Avengers. I am sure he and his creators are brainstorming about that right now. Fans have talked already about who should be Wolverine with names like Scott Eastwood and even Keanu Reeves. Who would you like to see as Wolverine with adamantium claws? Too bad Tom Hardy is Venom in Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff. By W B Stiles