Viggo Mortensen Talks About Turning Down Wolverine Role

I’m sure you know the story by now: Russell Crowe was offered the role of Wolverine/Logan in X-Men (2000). He passed and recommended fellow Australian Hugh Jackman. Director Bryan Singer chose Dougray Scott, but he had to pass when Mission: Impossible II‘s filming schedule conflicted with X-Men‘s. Thus, Jackman ended up with the part and the rest is history. But did you know Viggo Mortensen (The Road) was almost Wolverine too?

“I was offered Wolverine for the first movie—I guess it would have been for the franchise then,” Mortensen told The Daily Beast. “That was before I got Lord of the Rings. 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.’”

Mortensen added, “I believe it coincided with another project, and I couldn’t do it.” I believe the other project he is referring to is The Lord Of The Rings which would’ve been filming at around the same time.

That’s not the only superhero film Viggo has passed on. “I was offered two different parts in the last Superman movie they made, but I wasn’t available to do that either,” Mortensen said. When Man Of Steel began casting there were reports from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter linking Viggo to the villainous role of General Zod, which eventually went to Michael Shannon. So, one of the parts is surely Zod while the other is still a mystery.