'X-Men' Writer Had an Unlikely Actor in Mind to Play Wolverine Before Hugh Jackman

Will Lerner
·Producer, Yahoo Entertainment

Comic book icon Chris Claremont has been writing the adventures of various superheroes since 1973, but his most well known work was his longtime run on Uncanny X-Men. Stan Lee created the X-Men, but Chris Claremont helped make them into the characters we know today.

The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Claremont ahead of the release of Logan. He praised Hugh Jackman’s 17-year run as Wolverine, but acknowledged he had wanted someone else initially — Bob Hoskins.

Chris Claremont said that Bob Hoskins’s performance in <em>Lassiter</em> (1984) inspired his preference. (Photo: Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Collection)
Chris Claremont said that Bob Hoskins’s performance in Lassiter (1984) inspired his preference. (Photo: Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Collection)

Claremont said Hoskins first came to mind in 1988. “The image I had of Hoskins was from the films he made in England where they emphasized, in terms of his character, the harshness, the Cockney, the brutality of him,” he said.

When the first X-Men movie was finally made, Claremont was unsure about Jackman before his audition. Jackman came in at the eleventh hour after Dougray Scott had to drop out due to an injury.

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