Is Daniel Radcliffe Marvel’s Next Wolverine Star?
Daniel Radcliffe is once again denying rumors that he will play Wolverine in the MCU.
Relax, true believers; Daniel Radcliffe is not playing Wolverine, at least not yet. The Harry Potter star has had to once again shoot down rumors that he is playing the Marvel character in the MCU’s X-Men reboot, and he is voicing frustration that the rumor, like the character itself, keeps regenerating every few months. According to Deadline, Radcliffe isn’t quite ready to jump into the long-term commitment to a franchise that Wolverine and Marvel would require.
Having spent more than a decade playing Harry Potter (first playing the role in 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), Radcliffe will only take on another long-term role if he truly loved playing it. He said he didn’t ever want to get “locked into something that I am not sure I will be able to love the same amount the whole time,” he told GQ Magazine.
Daniel Radcliffe admits he is partly responsible for the rumors continuing to find new life. He says after constantly being asked the same question about playing Wolverine, his attempt to frame the answer a different way often backfires. “I say something, and then occasionally I get bored of answering that way so I say something different, and that sets it off again. I should just never open my mouth,” he admitted.
He also had to deny the casting in a recent appearance on The View. “This is something that comes up every so often, I think because in the comics Wolverine is short, so every so often they’re like, ‘Who’s a short actor?’ There’s never been any actual truth to it. There’s nothing going on,” he said.
The constant speculation isn’t helped by the fact that Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige has teased fans by saying the appearance of the X-Men in the MCU is “getting close.” We already know all of the films coming in Phases 5 and 6 of the MCU, and X-Men is not among them, so we will likely have to wait until after Avengers: Secret Wars opens in 2026 to see an X-Men film, with or without Daniel Radcliffe. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t see them in supporting roles or cameos in the meantime, and Secret Wars could provide that springboard.
The earliest we are likely to see any sort of Wolverine casting announcement would be 2024 to 2025, now that we know Hugh Jackman is returning to the role for Deadpool 3, due in theaters on November 8, 2024.
Unlike Warner Bros./DC, Marvel isn’t big on having multiple iterations of its charcets running around, unless it’s in service of a Multiverse story. Wirth such a high-profile character as Wolverine, Marvel will likely be careful to announce Jackman’s replacement after he has finished with the role, to minimize comparisons between the actors.
Still, recent roles in Sandra Bullock’s The Lost City and Guns Akimbo has shown Radcliffe’s ability to take on different roles, so as much as he would like to deny it, he could make for an interesting Wolverine/Logan.
Online rumors, and the internet environment that fuels them, is the main reason why Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t have any sort of official social media accounts. He has stated before he is not a fan of the toxic atmosphere social media can produce.
Daniel Radcliffe will be seen next in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, streaming on Friday, November 4 on The Roku Channel.
