Jeremy Allen White as Wolverine: is he Marvel's X-Men pick?

Jeremy Allen White has emerged as a potential Wolverine for the MCU, with reports suggesting he has met with Marvel Studios about a small role in its X-Men reboot that would lead to something bigger. None of this is confirmed. If it's true, I like it. I think White would do a good job, and I think this is one role where Marvel needs an actor with a little juice behind him.

Since Marvel's plans for the X-Men started coming together, people kept asking one thing: what about Wolverine? I went through the reporting with Kevin Smith, and we had plenty to say about White, Hugh Jackman's long shadow, and how Marvel might close the book on the old X-Men films.

What the Jeremy Allen White Wolverine reports claim

The report describes Marvel Studios as eyeing the two-time Emmy winner to play Logan in the X-Men reboot. The whispers are that White has met with Marvel to discuss what is expected to be a small role in the upcoming film, and that it would lead to more screen time down the line. The insider behind that claim is described as the one who was first to break the news about Sadie Sink playing Jean Grey, and he believes White is in the mix.

The report adds an update. A social media scooper claims that talks between Marvel Studios and White are progressing well and things seem to be headed in the right direction. Another prolific user on X also says The Bear star is currently Marvel's main pick for Wolverine. The piece suggests there may be something to this, but like any major casting rumor, it waits to see whether the trades eventually weigh in with something more solid.

According to the report, Marvel Studios will reboot the X-Men franchise with a new cast in the wake of Avengers: Secret Wars, and many of those actors have been revealed. Hugh Jackman has played the clawed mutant since 2000 and will be a tough act to follow. The studio is unlikely to keep Logan on the shelf for long, the report argues, because he is a major box office draw and bound to lead his own solo films somewhere down the line.

Why the report thinks Jeremy Allen White fits Wolverine

The report points out that White is arguably in need of a hit. It lists Springsteen, Social Reckoning and The Mandalorian and Grogu as films that either flopped or underperformed at the box office, so the X-Men reboot would be an effective way for him to bounce back.

Height comes up too. White is 5 foot 7, which the report says makes him more height appropriate than Jackman for the comics version of the character, and he is someone fans frequently suggest for the role. It also notes that he looks the part and has three SAG Awards, two Critics Choice Awards, three Golden Globes and two Primetime Emmys to his name.

The report even floats the idea that a romantic interest between Logan and Jean Grey isn't off the table, given that White is 35 and Sink is 24. It calls a Wolverine cameo in X-Men that sets up his MCU future an exciting prospect, while adding that it remains to be seen whether it pans out.

Kevin Smith on a shorter Wolverine after Hugh Jackman

Kevin loved the idea. He said a height appropriate Wolverine would be awesome. When he first saw Jackman in X-Men, he thought Jackman was too tall and in shape for the part, but the performance changed his mind. Kevin said he was a short guy growing up, always loved Wolverine, and that his high school mascot was a Wolverine, so the short version of the character meant something to him.

He was careful about the rumor, though. He said he was excited if it's true, but wasn't sure how much anyone could call it a guarantee. He said Jackman was awesome and as jacked as can be in Days of Future Past, but he was curious to see how Marvel would handle a shorter Wolverine, because that was part of the character's identity in the comics.

My take on Jeremy Allen White's recent movies

I think White is great, and I like him a lot. I liked his performance in the Springsteen movie, though I still think it was confusing that the film only covered that one album. I think they should have done it differently with Springsteen, and maybe that's the film White should have gotten, because I thought he was good in it. I also thought he was really good in Social Reckoning.

Where the report is right is the agent's view. If you're his agent, you're saying the problem isn't our guy. Our guy has the goods, we just can't get him into a movie that hits. So put him in X-Men as Wolverine. He'd be secure for a while, there'd be money to be made, and he'd get his own movies down the line.

Why following Hugh Jackman as Wolverine needs a known name

The other strong point in the report is that it will be hard for anyone to follow Jackman. Many people, myself included, have said that Jackman worked so well partly because he was unknown when he was cast. He wasn't going up against anybody, because no one had really played the role in live action before. He was forming it and making it his own.

Now it's been Jackman's role for 26 or 27 years, and maybe more once Secret Wars arrives, so he'll have played the part for almost 30 years. That's why I think you might need someone with a little juice behind them to pick up the role. White isn't a major movie star. He's well known if you know The Bear and Shameless, but he hasn't gotten that major role, and maybe this is it. I think maybe Marvel needs that.

How I think Marvel would introduce White's Wolverine

If White does get cast, I think he's going to show up in a scene after the credits. That's how I think they'll introduce him, and that's how you'll know he was cast as Wolverine.

I saw someone say he's still too tall. I disagree. Put him next to someone who's 6 foot 1 or 6 foot 2 and he's going to look tiny, so 5 foot 7 is a perfect height. There might be some people who say they don't necessarily see it, but I don't think many people are going to say they hate Jeremy Allen White. I've never heard that. I think he'd do a good job if he ultimately gets it.

Jean Grey as the way into Marvel's X-Men

There has been some pushback on the reported cast, including the young star of Karate Kid: Legends. Kevin said he saw in the rumor mill that this character will already be at the school, and that people are talking about Jean Grey being the audience's entry point. He thinks that's cool. It mirrors how Wolverine was the way into the X-Mansion in the original film, and now it would be Jean Grey, because we already know her from Spider-Man.

Kevin said he likes the castings. He noted that Marvel already made the joke of a height appropriate Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine, and he's glad they're not going with Henry Cavill as a massive, mutated version of the character. He also pointed out that Marvel is going younger across the X-Men, and with Rogue being so young, they'll apparently have to recast Gambit rather than use Channing Tatum.

How Marvel might end the old X-Men films in Secret Wars

That raises the question of how Marvel ends the previous X-Men line. It looks like something doomsday catastrophic is going to happen one way or another. We would assume, and maybe I'm wrong, that Jackman's Wolverine survives, and that's why he's going to be in Secret Wars with Deadpool. Does he survive that, and if so, then what?

Kevin said you have to wrap them up, even if it takes archival footage. He pointed to the ending of Days of Future Past, when Logan returns to the school and everyone is alive, including Jean Grey. Logan was the perfect ending for Wolverine, but before it came out, Kevin said that was the perfect ending for the 2000s X-Men, who got to be back in their reality.

I think Marvel has to go to one timeline and get rid of multiverses altogether. Kevin agreed, but he doesn't think Marvel will do that. He thinks they'll give everyone their own universe, cut off so no one can travel between them, letting the Spider-Man films and the old X-Men have their happily ever after while the MCU focuses on its main Earth. He suggested Loki could be the one to disconnect everything. My problem with that is if people don't like the new X-Men, they'll say the old one still exists, so go back there, rather than accepting that everyone else is gone.

Kevin said he's curious what happens with Magneto, because he thought Michael Fassbender was awesome, as was Ian McKellen. He also said a single universe would mean Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man is gone, and that the kid Andrew Garfield saves in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would live to 18 and then die. My answer was that it means more stakes. You want things to be devastating.

Why Marvel is right to cast the X-Men young

Someone said they don't like that Marvel is making the X-Men so young. I thoroughly disagree. I think it would be a colossal error not to. All the chips are going in on the X-Men. If the cast is around 22 or 23 now, they'll be about 24 or 25 when the movie comes out, 27 or 28 for the sequel, in their 30s for the third, and in their mid 30s for the fourth. In the same way as with Tom Holland, you evolve with them. It's like a baseball draft: you have to build with young players.

When the X-Men films started in 2000, the studio cast older because it didn't know what it had. It hoped for a sequel, but if it was a one off, it was a one off. When you know the future of the MCU is going to be the X-Men, you cast young and put them into contracts. Younger actors also don't have the bargaining chips to make demands. When their contracts are up, that's when the studio has to pay the big money, and by then hopefully it has made a fortune off them.

Jake Schreier and the Thunderbolts tone

I like where this is going so far, and I like the director a lot. I hope Jake Schreier brings the same tone he had in Thunderbolts, because I think that's an underrated movie. Kevin said he loved it. I think quality wise it's one of the better ones Marvel has done in a while, even though it didn't do very well in theaters.

That's where Kevin Feige differs from many people running film businesses. A lot of times, as certainly happened in Star Wars, studios panic and lose confidence in a director because their last movie didn't do well, so they get rid of them or overpower them. Colin Trevorrow came up on the show as an example, and that's definitely an example of it. Feige didn't do that with Schreier. He said Marvel liked what he did with Thunderbolts, that's the tone it wants, and it's sticking with it.