As per industry rumors, Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine or any other version of the character isn’t part of the MCU’s X-Men reboot script. These speculations come following Jackman’s return as Logan / Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine. Meanwhile, an MCU X-Men movie went into early development back in late 2023.
Marvel’s X-Men reboot rumored to exclude Hugh Jackman and other Wolverine variants
Industry scooper Daniel Richtman, aka Daniel RPK, claimed on his Patreon that the present treatment of MCU’s X-Men movie doesn’t include arguably the team’s most famous member. In May 2024, various outlets reported that Michael Lesslie, the screenwriter behind the cinematic adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ novel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, was in negotiation with Marvel to pen the X-Men script. If the recent rumors are indeed true, they are likely referring to elements from Lesslie’s script.
“I hear the current treatment for the MCU X-Men reboot does not include Wolverine, at all,” Richtman reported. (via The Direct)
According to Richtman, this decision was taken as Jackman might continue to portray the character “post [Avengers] Secret Wars.” Richtman claimed, “[The] Rest of the team is similar to the X-Men ’97 cartoon plus some. But no Wolverine because Hugh Jackman is sticking around for now. Likely even post Secret Wars.”
Notably, he had claimed in December 2023 that Mister Sinister from the comics could potentially become the main villain of the X-Men movie. Daniel Richtman also speculated in July 2024 that Jackman would be “sticking around for a bit more” after Deadpool & Wolverine.
Jackman has been portraying Wolverine since the 2000 film X-Men. There has been considerable speculation on who may replace Jackman, especially after he said that 2017’s Logan would be the final time he played that character. The names of actors such as Taron Egerton and Daniel Radcliffe have come up in the discussion over the years. Since Henry Cavill appeared as a variant of Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine, calls for his casting as the MCU version of the character have gained steam as well.
If the X-Men roster in the MCU does resemble that of X-Men ’97 and doesn’t include Logan, it will likely comprise Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Rogue, Jubilee, Magneto, Storm, Morph, Professor X, and several others.
