12 Easy Solutions To Save The X-Men Franchise
5. Just Get It Over With
If there are going to be Fox X-Men movies for a while to come (and it seems that this is Fox’s plan for the property at this stage), then the elephant in the room needs to be addressed, and it needs to be addressed sooner rather than later: Wolverine needs to be recast.
Even if they amp up the personas of the other members of the team to create that true ensemble feeling that I’ve been talking about, Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of Wolverine has been central to the franchise for sixteen years now, and over eight out of the nine movies in that franchise. But he’s not going to be playing Logan for much longer… the third Wolverine movie is up next, and that’s going to be his last go at the guy.
But Wolverine’s a core member of the team, and the one that casual fans link most to the whole concept of ‘X-Men’. You can’t have an X-Men team without Wolverine on it - and no, not the X-23 Wolverine that Marvel’s trying to foist on us, the real one. But how do you go about recasting someone considered so married to the role?
Marvel Studios are going to have similar issues at some point, having been so successful with the Marvel Cinematic Universe that they’ve created multiple film versions of their characters that are intrinsically tied up with the actor who plays them. After all, while anyone could wear the Iron Man armour, no one except for Robert Downey can play Tony Stark.
There are any number of ways to make a new Wolverine: cloning and a sneaky mind-transfer can create a similar but not identical copy, or a displaced alternate universe Logan could arrive to, I don’t know, restock on cigars or something. The Logan we know and love could mutate further, changing appearance - or be radically altered for some reason. They could be incredibly cheeky and simply recast the role with no storyline explanation: it works for James Bond.
Fundamentally, the ‘how’ isn’t as important as the ‘who’, and whoever’s cast as Wolverine 2.0 will have his work cut out for him. But if it’s got to happen - and it probably does - then it’s got to be prepared for, and the steps taken to begin the process, soon.