12 Actors You Didn't Know Almost Played Superheroes

4. Viggo Mortensen As Wolverine

Superhero Movie Casting Spiderman Leonardo DiCaprio
Dimension Films

Before playing Aragorn in the massive Lord of the Rings franchise, Viggo Mortensen was offered the role of everyone's favorite claw-yielding X-Man, Wolverine, for the 2000 film X-Men. Mortensen even went as for as to go in to talk with the filmmakers about the role, even bringing his 10-year-old, comic book-loving son with him, as he told The Daily Beast:

I remember going to the meeting with the director, Bryan Singer, with my son who was a total comic book expert. He was about 10 at the time. Henry came, and Bryan showed us all these models and storyboards, and Henry was instructing the director, saying, ‘Oh, you’re going to change this thing right here.'

However, other filming conflicts prevented him from taking on the role, and Hugh Jackman went on to play the part of Logan that we all know and love.

Contributor
Contributor

Holland Baker is based in New York City, where she is an editor, writer and co-host of Whatever It Takes: A Degrassi Podcast. In her free time, you can find her searching for bodega cats, eating mass amounts of pizza and using humor as a defense mechanism.