When the Marvel Cinematic Universe inevitably gets around to recasting the role of Wolverine for their rebooted version of the X-Men, it presents both a golden opportunity and a poisoned chalice. Any actor brave enough to tackle the character would land themselves one of the most high-profile parts in the business, but would also find themselves under incredible scrutiny from the fans.
After all, Hugh Jackman’s iconic tenure as Logan will arguably be impossible to beat, and a lot of people think Marvel would be much better off just leaving Wolverine out of the equation entirely. There’s plenty of mutants that have never even been seen in live-action before, and the idea of having another actor play a role that’s so inextricably linked to somebody else could potentially result in disaster.
That hasn’t stopped countless replacements being mooted, however, including everyone from Tom Hardy to Daniel Radcliffe, and one of the more recent names to throw their hat into the ring is Antony Starr, who’s hardly a stranger to the superhero genre thanks to his role as the psychopathic Homelander in Amazon’s hit series The Boys.
His comments about replacing Jackman might have been tongue-in-cheek and largely focused on his love of spandex, but digital artist Josh has nonetheless created some new fan art that imagines how the 44 year-old could look as Wolverine, which you can check out below.
There’s no point pretending that Wolverine isn’t going to make his return to our screens at some point in the future with a new actor sporting the snappy sideburns, but Marvel needs to make sure their casting is pitch perfect or they could face huge backlash if they end up diluting Jackman’s legacy with an inferior replacement.