X-Men: Viggo Mortensen Says He Has Zero Regrets Turning Down Wolverine Role

Credit: New Line Cinema

Credit: New Line Cinema

Fox's X-Men films may have not been the most consistent film franchise in terms of exceeding fan expectations and keeping them pleased but it did have its redeeming qualities. One of which is Hugh Jackman's iconic portrayal of Wolverine and his take on the fan-favorite mutant was so legendary that he's still being associated with the character today.



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Credit: Fox

Now, a lot of you may not know about this but Jackman wasn't the original choice to play Logan in 2000's X-Men. In fact, director Bryan Singer already had an actor in mind to play the live-action version of Wolverine and it's none other than Viggo Mortensen of The Lord of the Rings fame.

Viggo explained what led to his decision to turn down the role in his recent appearance on Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast. The Aragorn actor says that even though his Marvel casting never truly materialized, he regrets nothing and even praised Jackman for his phenomenal performance.

Viggo said: "No I don't. No. I think he did great. No can imagine doing it better than Hugh did anyway, so... I think the thing that bothered me at the time was the commitment of endless movies of that same character over and over. I was nervous about that I think..."

Even though Mortensen ultimately passed on what could've been a career-defining role, he was still lucky enough to have carved his own path in Hollywood, finding huge success in the LOTR franchise. That's not to say though that we won't see him in a Marvel project in the future. If anything, now's the perfect time for him to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe but then again, at the end of the day, it's still up to him.

Speaking of the mutants, Marvel Studios' X-Men reboot is reportedly in early development.

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