Daniel Radcliffe Reveals Source of Wolverine Rumors
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe admits his call to play Wolverine in an X-Men movie came more from boredom than from Kevin Feige.
Daniel Radcliffe is the best at what he does, but what he does isn’t very nice. Because it dashes people’s expectations, apparently! The former Harry Potter star has carved out a solid career in adulthood, choosing odd roles ranging from a haunted doctor in The Woman in Black to a farting corpse in Daniels’ Swiss Army Man, to the king of parodies himself Weird Al Yankovic for the upcoming Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. But the character with whom Radcliffe has been most recently associated is not the Boy Who Lived, but the X-Men’s premier Canucklehead, Wolverine.
As Kevin Feige makes plans to bring the X-Men into the MCU, fans have been casting their choices for the various mutants, none more vigorously than Wolverine. Some of the names thrown around include both Antony Starr and Karl Urban of The Boys and Taron Egerton of Kingsman: The Secret Service. But standing at 5’5″, Radcliffe perhaps has the best claim to playing the famously short Logan. In fact, Radcliffe began saying as much to the press, telling Marvel to cast him because he’s short.
But on his press tour for Weird, Radcliffe has started to change the words to this familiar tune. Speaking with the Phase Zero podcast, the actor stated that while he’ll usually be honest and tell people who imagine him as Wolverine, “That’s not a thing, and that’s not happening,” his mischievous side sometimes gets the better of him. “Every so often I’ll be bored of answering like that and I’ll be like ‘ah, come and get me, Marvel!’,” Radcliffe admitted. “And then I’ll be like, ‘That was a dumb thing to say. Why do I ever say that?'”
Presumably, Radcliffe will be off the hook for those types of questions, at least for a bit. Hugh Jackman will be returning to the role he originated for Deadpool 3, which marks both characters’ introduction into the MCU. While Deadpool 3 will probably be Jackman’s last time donning Wolverine’s claws and mutton chops, as he already retired from the character with Logan, the move will likely tamp down fans channeling their inner Feige to cast their own Wolverine.
In the meantime, Radcliffe will have his hands full embodying another figure known for his hairdo and attitude, Weird Al Yankovic. A pseudo-biopic spun off of a Funny or Die sketch starring Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul, Weird parodies movies such as The Doors and Walk the Line, making the famously polite and drama-free musician into an agent of chaos. Joining Radcliffe are Evan Rachel Wood as love interest Madonna, Rainn Wilson as his mentor Doctor Demento, and Abbott Elementary‘s Quinta Brunson as Oprah.
While that motley bunch may not be quite as wild as the X-Men, they’ll surely keep Radcliffe busy for a while. And even if he doesn’t get the chance to be Wolverine, there are plenty of other short guys for him to play in the MCU. Who wouldn’t want to see Radcliffe as Alpha Flight‘s Puck or Wild Child?
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Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!