Marvel Studios Reportedly Plans to Keep Hugh Jackman as Wolverine Through the Next Mutant Saga

Marvel Studios is reportedly planning to keep Hugh Jackman in the role of Wolverine going forward, even past Avengers: Secret Wars and into the next Mutant Saga. That is the latest according to industry insider Daniel Richtman, who posts under the handle DanielRPK on Twitter and is probably the most trusted name for Marvel scoops, trusted enough that outlets like The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline have re-reported his information before.

This comes right after Kevin Feige sat down at Marvel's Burbank headquarters this year in place of a San Diego Comic-Con panel and answered questions from a room full of reporters. Feige turned some heads by acknowledging that eventually huge characters like Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and yes, even Wolverine would have to be recast if Marvel Studios wants a livelihood into the next couple of decades. He talked about what a task recasting would be, but still acknowledged it as inevitable for actors who are getting up there in age. Ryan Reynolds even joked in character as Deadpool during Deadpool and Wolverine that Disney and Marvel would make Jackman play the role until he is 90.

The Insider Report Says Wolverine and Deadpool Are the Exceptions to Marvel's Coming Recasts

According to Richtman's scoop, while a great number of X-Men characters are expected to be recast, with Fox's former X-Men actors giving way to new faces for roles like Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Storm, Professor X, and Magneto, Wolverine and Deadpool are apparently not part of that wave. Ryan Reynolds is expected to stay as Deadpool, and now Hugh Jackman is reportedly confirmed to stay as Wolverine as well.

If that holds, it follows that talk of a Deadpool 4 or a Deadpool and Wolverine sequel, or the idea that the first X-Men reboot team would launch without a Wolverine at all, all lines up with Jackman remaining in the role. In that same Burbank meeting, Feige also revealed that Marvel has another plan in place after Avengers: Secret Wars that will run through 2032, presumably covering the next saga, and that it will run for five years.

The Age Math on Hugh Jackman Versus Robert Downey Jr., Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen

Working off those numbers, Hugh Jackman is currently 57. If he stays as Wolverine through the entire next Mutant Saga all the way to 2032, he would be 62 by the time it wraps. For comparison, Robert Downey Jr. is currently 60, and by the time Avengers: Secret Wars comes out, where he will still be playing Doom and/or a variant of Iron Man, he will also be 62, the exact same age Jackman would be at the end of the following saga.

So all the jokes about Disney and Marvel keeping Jackman around until he is 90 do not really hold up. They would just be asking him to stick around for one more saga, ending at the same age Robert Downey Jr. will be while still playing Doom in Secret Wars. By contrast, Patrick Stewart is 85 and Ian McKellen is 86, and while it seems almost certain this marks their last time playing their roles unless they turn up in Secret Wars, they have been doing it for twenty plus years beyond the point where people are already calling Jackman's Wolverine too old.

Feige has also said actors like Chris Hemsworth are still in their prime and could play Thor for another ten years. Looking at Jackman at 57 next to Stewart and McKellen in their mid eighties, he does not seem old for the role at all.

A Younger X-Men Reboot Cast Makes an Older Wolverine Make More Sense

If the X-Men team is recast much younger, as has been heavily rumored not just by insiders but by Jeff Sneider, who has been talking about the X-Men reboot since basically the start of the year, most of the actors and actresses named are in their late twenties or younger, with nobody in their thirties or forties like most of the original MCU castings. Hugh Jackman being much older than a younger X-Men team actually fits the character and the story.

Marvel can cast the X-Men team as young as it wants without much backlash, especially if Jackman's Wolverine is not a member of that first team, since Marvel would not do a recast and have two Wolverines running around the MCU at once. As has been rumored, Wolverine and Deadpool would join the X-Men later on, possibly around a story point like Age of Apocalypse, though that remains uncertain. The first X-Men team could still keep a classic lineup with characters like Cyclops and Storm while feeling a little different because of it.

Why Killing Off Steve Rogers and Tony Stark Early May Have Been a Mistake Marvel Does Not Want to Repeat

This looks like Marvel Studios learning a lesson from killing off Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. The Multiverse Saga would likely have been better if an Avengers movie had shown up a little earlier and kept those two characters as anchors and point of view figures for everything new happening in the MCU. Instead they were largely removed from the story in Avengers: Endgame, and Old Man Cap being not quite dead did not change much since he was still taken out of the Multiverse Saga entirely. That curtailed casual interest in the MCU and, along with it, the box office bottom line.

Deadpool and Wolverine, thanks in large part to Jackman's involvement, was one of the few films of the Multiverse Saga to cross the billion dollar mark. Marvel Studios may be looking at that and deciding not to repeat the mistake. Jackman still has plenty of years left compared to some of Marvel's other actors, and keeping him in the role gives Marvel a chance at another billion dollar team up with Deadpool.

"I hate to say this out loud because this is the company thinking, not my thinking," is how that reasoning was framed, acknowledging that from a fan's point of view treating a beloved character as a guaranteed box office draw feels a little uncomfortable, even if it makes sense from a bottom line perspective for a Marvel Studios that has been struggling to reach that billion dollar mark. And if I were Hugh Jackman, having finally gotten to play Wolverine in the MCU with everything still to come for the X-Men, I do not know why he would want to walk away right now.

Do you think Marvel Studios should keep Hugh Jackman as Wolverine for another saga, or is it time for a full recast alongside the rest of the X-Men reboot?