As popular Marvel hero Wolverine is very fond of saying, he's the best there is at what he does, but what he does isn't very nice. What is nice, however, is that mutants are confirmed to eventually join the MCU, potentially starting with Xavier's finest, the X-Men themselves. 20th Century Fox introduced a cinematic version of the X-Men over two decades ago, led by fan-mega-favorite Hugh Jackman in the role of Wolverine.
In early 2019, Fox and all of its entertainment assets were acquired by the Walt Disney Corporation, which at long last returned the film rights for the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and Deadpool to Marvel Studios. This, of course, meant that these characters and concepts could now be integrated into the MCU.
The Fantastic Four are confirmed for a feature film, which will likely arrive sometime in 2024 or later. The X-Men will likely soon follow. And Deadpool? The Merc with a Mouth, as uniquely brought to life by Ryan Reynolds, has an MCU-based threequel in development at Marvel.
Deadpool 3 is being written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and as it turns out, they have some thoughts on who Marvel Studios should cast for their Wolverine.
Deadpool 3 Writers Share Wolverine Casting Ideas
Speaking to The Post-Credit Podcast, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers on Deadpool 3 have commented on what qualities they would like to see for the MCU's Wolverine, with Reese recommending the studio go with "someone shorter this time."
“Suggestions… It’s gotta be someone shorter this time… So maybe a Zack Galifianakis or Patton Oswalt, someone like that… I don’t know. Look, we don’t have any inside information on that. Even if we did, we couldn’t share it but we don’t… I would honestly go more… an undiscovered person, because Hugh Jackman was reasonably undiscovered the first time and I think there was initial bucking [of], ‘Oh, he’s too tall,’ or, ‘He doesn’t look right,’ or, ‘What is this Australian thing?’ I think that if they’re playing their cards right, they probably should make it someone we’ve never seen.”
Wernick added that trust should be placed in the capable hands of Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige:
“Oh, don’t worry, they’ll play their cards right, you know, Kevin Feige, he knows what he’s doing over there… he doesn’t need any of our opinions.”
Patton Oswalt as Logan?
Clearly, Reese was just poking some fun at the casting process for the X-Men's most popular member when he suggested Patton Oswalt or Zack Galifianakis. Still, Oswalt is a huge fan of Marvel and has played many Marvel characters over the years in such shows as Agents of SHIELD and MODOK.
The writing duo has a very good point though: Ideally, Marvel would cast someone shorter in stature than the 6'3" Hugh Jackman. Wolverine, in the pages of the comics, has always been portrayed as having a smaller, more solid build than, say, Spider-Man or Black Panther. In fact, his official height in the books is listed as being a full foot shorter than Jackman at 5'3".
But a character's height is not the end-all, be-all of casting for big Hollywood movies. Expect Marvel to take many other factors into consideration when casting what is sure to be a very popular MCU role.
As for Marvel Studios projects, Wolverine will be seen in X-Men '97, a continuation of the classic 1990s X-Men cartoon. On top of that, Feige promised the introduction of "mutants" to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2019 during San Diego Comic Con, but there have been no updates since.
