Fan casting has paid off in recent years with the likes of Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka and John Krasinski as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, but don’t expect a similar win when it comes to Daniel Radcliffe as Wolverine. Despite fans clamoring for years on social media for the “Harry Potter” veteran to take on the role of Wolverine, he recently told GQ magazine that any headline claiming he’s circling the role is “purely a press tour rumor.”
“I say something, and then occasionally I get bored of answering that way so I say something different, and that sets it off again,” Radcliffe said about his own part in fueling the Wolverine buzz. “I should just never open my mouth.”
Radcliffe added, “I just don’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.”
Considering Radcliffe knows what it’s like to play one role across a decade, he’s wise to think twice when it comes to signing on for a second major movie franchise. The actor told Entertainment Weekly in March that the Wolverine rumor always surges because “Wolverine is short, so every so often they’re like, ‘Who’s a short actor?’ There’s never been any actual truth to it.”
“Every so often I get bored of answering the questions sensibly, so I just make a joke like I did the other day and that sort of has reignited the rumors of it, but there’s nothing going on,” Radcliffe said at the time.
Even if Radcliffe did want to play Wolverine, he’d have to wait a bit, as original Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman is returning to his iconic role opposite Ryan Reynolds in the upcoming third “Deadpool” movie.
“A little part of me now thinks I’d be better at it,” Jackman recently told Variety about his return. “Is that arrogance of age or something? Wolverine’s a tortured character — more tortured than me. But I always get the feeling of him being comfortable in his own skin. And I feel more comfortable in my own skin now, even though it’s messier.”
As for Radcliffe, he next stars as Weird “Al” Yankovich in the biopic comedy “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” releasing Nov. 4 exclusively on The Roku Channel.