X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn wanted a younger Wolverine for Days of Future Past… and was willing to recast the role.
After successfully introducing a younger cast of mutants to the X-Men franchise, it looks as though Matthew Vaughn wanted to tackle the Wolverine himself. Planning to give Wolverine a new lease of life, it seems he wanted to recast the role with a younger actor.
But would that have meant the end for Hugh Jackman?
During an interview with MTV News, the X-Men director (who almost went on to direct Days of Future Past) admitted he would have recast the role of Wolverine.
But that doesn’t mean Hugh Jackman wouldn’t have shown his face…
“I had a whole different idea of how X-Men should go,” he explained. “I thought Days of Future Past should be the next one and be set in the ’80s. So, when I wrote the treatment, I then wrote Kingsman and got confused about which film I should direct next. Then I said to Fox: ‘Let me do Kingsman now, get somebody else in and we’ll do the ’70s version, recast Wolverine, and then we do Days of Future Past with the new Wolverine and Hugh, and make it the biggest spectacle we’ve ever seen’.”
Of course, that never happened… and it turned out that Wolverine’s stunted ageing was a major factor in Days of Future Past – allowing Jackman to play the role of both his future and past self.
But would it really have worked if they recast him as a younger actor?
Although the notion seems to have been put together with the best of intentions, I can’t help thinking that it’s inherently flawed – after all, we saw a Hugh Jackman-aged Wolverine in the previous movie X-Men: First Class. And that was set during the 1960s.
So for now, it looks as though Jackman’s job is safe. But then, he can’t play Wolverine forever. Will we eventually see him recast as a younger actor? I get the feeling that much is a given.
But who will play him? For now, we’ll have to wait and see.
What do you think of Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men plans? Would you want to see a much younger Wolverine? Let us know what you think in the comments below…
