One of the oddest superhero movie trilogies out there has to be the trio of solo Wolverine movies. Rarely has a film trilogy in any genre been so erratic in quality. X-Men Origins: Wolverine kicked off these movies with a whimper and received some of the worst reviews ever for a mainstream superhero film. Inevitably, it became a punchline in the solo Deadpool films and a model for what subsequent Wolverine outings shouldn’t do. Trilogy capper Logan, meanwhile, is an Oscar-nominated box office smash that garnered some of the best reviews ever for a superhero film.
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In between those two titles is July 2013’s The Wolverine, which saw director James Mangold intersect with Wolverine’s world for the very first time. That wasn’t always the plan for Wolverine’s second solo film, though. The Wolverine originally started as a radically different motion picture that could’ve been one of the very best Marvel movies of all time, if it had lived up to its potential.
Darren Aronofsky & His Dance With The Wolverine
While X-Men Origins: Wolverine didn’t do too badly at the box office, it was also clearly not revered enough to inspire confidence in a sequel. If 20th Century Fox wanted to keep the Hugh Jackman Wolverine money train going, then whatever came next in this franchise would have to be radically different. In late 2010, a month after his eventual box office and critical sensation Black Swan premiered at the 67th International Venice Film Festival, Darren Aronofsky was announced as directing the next installment in this saga, The Wolverine.
Aronofsky and Jackman previously worked together on The Fountain, and the duo almost bonded on X-Men: The Last Stand (a project Aronofsky passed on). Getting this acclaimed filmmaker to helm The Wolverine fresh off his biggest movie, Black Swan, was certainly one way to reassure audiences this wouldn’t be a retread of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Jackman expressed hopes that this sequel would be as thematically rich and complex as Aronofsky’s other motion pictures rather than just being a run-of-the-mill superhero movie that happened to be directed by the Requiem for a Dream auteur.
Aronofsky’s few comments about the project, while he was attached to direct, saw the filmmaker emphasizing how his passion for Japanese cinema was a massive reason why he took on this production. Under Aronofsky’s tenure, the project was also given the title The Wolverine, both differentiating it from its predecessor and that would stay intact throughout the entire production. However, by March 2010, Aronofsky would leave the film, and the hunt for a new director immediately got underway.
Would Aronofsky’s The Wolverine Have Been Good?
Darren Aronofsky loves movies about (among other themes) people with battered bodies, with his directorial eye often lingering on their tattered, scarred forms. Considering The Wolverine was a movie about the titular superhero growing weary of his mortality, dealing with the loss of his healing factor, and performing an impromptu surgery on himself, it certainly sounds like a movie that would’ve aligned perfectly with Aronofsky’s sensibilities. There was rich potential in this director helming this particular superhero film, especially since he and Jackman have a pre-existing bond.
What’s staggering to consider is the long-term cultural domino effect if Aronofsky’s The Wolverine had materialized. If he hadn’t left the project so that he could remain close to his kids during a divorce, it’s doubtful Logan would’ve happened, given how that movie was so deeply tied into Mangold’s vision for the character. If Logan doesn’t exist, then the entire perception of Jackman’s Wolverine character changes. Furthermore, Deadpool & Wolverine would’ve been a radically different film (if it had existed at all), considering how much it hinged on the iconography of Mangold’s tenure with the character.
While X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a terrible movie and kick-off to the solo Wolverine trilogy, its sequels, particularly Logan, profoundly affected the superhero movie zeitgeist. Aronofsky taking on The Wolverine would’ve had a long-term ripple effect, forever changing what this landscape would look like, not to mention ensuring he couldn’t have had the time to embrace his most oddball, mid-2010s directorial efforts like Noah and Mother! There’s no question that major artistry was left on the table when Aronofsky left The Wolverine. The ramifications of him taking on that movie, though, are so staggering that it’s for the best that the solo Wolverine movie trilogy played out like it did.
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Courtesy of Toei Animation
