It’s only a matter of time before the Marvel Cinematic Universe recasts the role of Wolverine when the franchise reboots the X-Men, and those are about the biggest shoes you could possibly step into in the comic book genre, other than the ones that used to belong to Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark.
Hugh Jackman turned Logan into a cinematic and cultural icon, and it’d probably be for the best if Marvel left the mutton-chopped mutant on the sidelines for a while, because anybody brave enough to tackle the part would only find everything they did compared to the previous version.
A lot of fans have lent support to the idea of Jon Bernthal as Wolverine, and technically there’s no reason why he couldn’t when Kevin Feige doesn’t view Netflix’s The Punisher as official canon. However, in a new interview with Forbes, the actor brought the conversation right back to Frank Castle the second he was asked about another superhero.
“Look, the criteria in which I sort of decide what I’m doing next is: Does the script move me?, Who am I working with?, Who is the filmmaker, and is that somebody I’m dying to work with? I’m going to hold onto that moving forward no matter what that is. I get it, I get that the Marvel questions, you’re asking these questions because it’s super important to a lot of people; people love these characters and I get that and I come to that with absolute respect. What I will tell you again is that Frank Castle is in my bones. Frank Castle is in my bones.”
If Bernthal hasn’t made it clear enough, he’d love to come back as the Punisher, but the ball remains firmly in Marvel’s court. The former Walking Dead star admitted that it has to be as dark and gritty as it needs to be before he’d even consider a comeback, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.