We all know eventually 20th Century Fox will move forward with recasting Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine, but we hope they wait for a little before pursuing this and give Logan some breathing room for a couple years.
My own idea concerning a reboot for years has been tackling it as a prequel, prior to the formation of the X-Men making it a true solo film and exploring his days before having the moral compass of Professor Xavier but also not having to rehash his transformation into Weapon X (covered twice now).
Director Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Kingsman) recently mentioned to Uproxx his previous desire to make a young Wolverine film but it didn’t fly with Fox.
“I didn’t want to do Days of Future Past next. I felt that one should be in a trilogy and Days of Future Past should be the finale of that story. I would have done a film in-between where you meet the young Wolverine and a new character, and then in Days of Future Past became the young Wolverine and the old Wolverine and just really blow it out….So that’s what I would have done, but the studio didn’t agree with me on that. And, to be frank, as I said, it’s not my sandbox so I couldn’t do anything about it.”
20th Century Fox CEO Stacey Snider hasn’t ruled out the idea of a Wolverine reboot while speaking with Variety. The studio has just started their Oscar campaign for Logan sending out screeners.
Will you reboot “Wolverine” with another actor now that Hugh Jackman has said he’s retiring?
“Anything’s possible.”
The prospect of rebooting Wolverine isn’t crazy as Hugh Jackman has even said Tom Hardy would be his choice to replace him when asked by MTV.
“I think Tom Hardy could be a great [Wolverine].”
Hardy isn’t a stranger to comic book properties playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises and will begin filming Sony’s Venom as Eddie Brock next month. Tom had also been previously in the mix to play Doctor Strange and almost took a role in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Over two years ago, I wrote a piece about how a Wolverine reboot should be a WWII action film placing Wolverine into the European campaign. As his service has only been teased in films like Origins and The Wolverine, it would give Fox another open door to make a grounded and gritty comic book film like Logan without the predictable world ending plot. Limiting the number of mutant cameos and giving screenwriters creative freedom not to follow an existing comic book story.
I also felt like a Cold-War plot could be interesting as Soviet super-soldier villain Omega Red was never covered.
It wouldn’t be a huge stretch for Tom Hardy to play a soldier superhero with his credits that include Dunkirk, Band of Brothers, and Black Hawk Down. A film set in the 1940-60s would also be different enough from things like Mad Max, Bane, and Venom, that could be appealing to him.
His Venom contract likely doesn’t block him from taking an X-Men role with Fox.
My only gripe would be allowing Dafne Keen‘s Laura her own solo film as X-23 giving her time to make herself established within the franchise would be the key here.
Wolverine and Logan director James Mangold has confirmed the studio has been talking with him about an X-23 spinoff before and after Logan’s production. Although, Mangold will be busy with his NYPD drama The Force until 2019.
“Anything is possible. I’ve certainly talked to them [20th Century Fox] about it. I even talked to them about it before we made the movie. I just think she’s a great character, but with what Dafne did that’s certainly possible.”
“I would love to see an X-23 film and that is something I would definitely be involved with.”
On the heels of the Wonder Woman success earning $820 million worldwide, it seems like a no-brainer to pursue an X-23 film. Fox will become the only studio without a female superhero project with Captain Marvel, Gotham City Sirens and Silver & Black on the horizon. I don’t see them making spinoffs focusing their other female characters at the moment.
Logan isn’t without its own successes too, earning $620 million (on a budget of $97 million) and is now getting an Oscar campaign. Making a sequel/spinoff focusing on Laura would continue telling different stories within the franchise.
I’m also holding out the hope if Fox can’t convince James Mangold to return to direct either X-23 or this Wolverine reboot, they’d consider filmmakers such as David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water, Outlaw King), Taylor Sheridan (Wind River, Sicario, Hell or High Water), and SJ Clarkson (Defenders, Jessica Jones) tackle them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN9PDOoLAfg