Taron Egerton Rules Out Wolverine Role, Reveals He Was Approached by Feige for Another Iconic X‑Men
Kingsman star Taron Egerton recently joined Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, and the conversation turned to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Horowitz brought up how filmmaker Joe Russo once said Egerton would be a perfect fit to play Wolverine. Egerton was quick to point out that this wasn’t exactly an unbiased opinion.
“Joe is very sweet, Joe and I are friends, though. You know he’s not being impartial there,” he said with a laugh.
When asked if he ever followed up on that suggestion, Egerton explained that Wolverine isn’t really the role he’s chasing.
“No, I do talk to Joe from time to time, but I don’t think about that. Jackman is Wolverine, you know. Hugh Jackman is Wolverine. The trouble is, whenever I get asked about this, I have to respond because I’m a reasonably polite person, but it sounds like I’m the one causing it, and it’s like I’m trying to live my life. There was a moment that I won’t lie, probably one of the first times the rumor mill wound up about it, where I thought ‘that would be cool.’ But I think it never came to anything other than a rumor. I guess they haven’t included the characters in a fresh iteration, so it never came to anything, and also, you know, Hugh came back.”
Egerton went on to say that Jackman is so closely tied to Wolverine that stepping into the role would be a huge challenge, and it’s not the kind of attention he’s looking for. You know the fan debates around MCU casting can get intense very quickly, and he’s not eager to be caught in the middle of that.
Horowitz also asked about an old meeting Egerton once had with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. After years of speculation, Egerton finally revealed which character came up in that conversation.
“Honestly can’t remember Josh. I honestly can’t remember, it might have been Cyclops? Maybe. I don’t know. There was a conversation around that years ago, back when it was a Fox thing. There was a Cyclops conversation years ago.”
From the way Egerton talks about it, it doesn’t sound like he’s about to join the MCU any time soon. It’s not that he’s against the idea, he just doesn’t want to put himself under that kind of spotlight. If he ever changes his mind, whether about Wolverine, Cyclops, or another Marvel hero, the opportunity will almost certainly be there.
Marvel has already confirmed that the X-Men will eventually join the MCU. Back at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, Kevin Feige said mutants would appear and that the MCU’s take on the team would be different from the old Fox films. This year, Michael Lesslie was hired to write the new X-Men movie, with Jake Schreier set to direct after Thunderbolts*. Feige also made it clear the upcoming version will feature a completely new, younger cast following the events of Secret Wars.
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