12 Terrible Early Concepts That Almost Ruined Iconic Heroes

By K.J. Stewart / September 1, 2014

8. Beast Could've Been A Blue Werewolf & Wolverine Could've Been Bob Hoskins

The scenery could have been very different as far as the X-Men movie franchise goes, had some of the past drafts and ideas for some of the characters in it come in to fruition. Take Beast for example - the look of the character, whether it's the older Kelsey Grammer version or the younger Nicholas Hoult version, was pretty flawless in terms of his bestial appearance. However, an early draft of his look saw the character somewhat resembling a blue werewolf with Wolverine's hairstyle. More pivotally to the franchise, and going a bit further back, Wolverine could have been played by a number of different actors who would have been very, very different to the highly successful Hugh Jackman. Believe it or not, comic book writer Chris Claremont wanted the late Bob Hoskins to play Wolverine in the days before the current franchise was up and running.

About the subject, Claremont said:

Over the course of the three (first X-Men) films he evolved on screen in much the same manner he evolved in the comic. The Wolverine quite naturally becomes the core essence of the group. It would have been interesting if wed done it 25 years ago and Id gotten my wish and Bob Hoskins had played him. Hoskins has that same degree of mad fury and hes short. Dont think of Super Mario Bros. think of The Long Good Friday. With Hugh Jackman, it just reverses the paradigm, hes six foot four and who cares?

Wolverine could also have been played, potentially, by Dougray Scott, Johnny Depp or Glenn Danzig. It's hard to see how any of those wouldn't have been terrible compared to Jackman.