Director Shawn Levy says Kevin Feige had one specific requirement.
Hugh Jackman’s return to Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine appears to have been contingent upon one very particular need that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige would not compromise on. At a recent promotional event that ComicBook attended, director Shawn Levy stated that Feige had asked him to wear yellow spandex.
“Yes, but he wears the yellow,” he responded. Is he able to wear the yellow at last?” he asked. “And we began.”
Feige and Jackman have a lengthy history together because Feige collaborated on the 2000 X-Men film that made Jackman’s character known to the globe.
Ryan Reynolds, who plays Deadpool, also spoke at the event and claimed that Feige told him to “forget it” after he had been pushing for a Deadpool/Wolverine crossover film for years. It is not going to occur.”
It seems that Reynolds came to terms with that. Before Jackman declared he would not actually retire as Wolverine after Logan and that he intended to return, they had developed a number of different ideas for a new Deadpool film with Levy.
“We were on our final pitch one day after that. “I think we’re going to walk away and we’ll come back later, maybe in a couple years, when we have a better sense of things,” was what we were prepared to tell Kevin Feige. I happened to get a call from Hugh,” Reynolds remarked.
Reynolds continued by describing this development as “kind of miraculous,” adding that it was a factor in Feige’s decision to approve the film, which is being released this month. Reynolds stated, “Kevin said yes right away for an unknown reason.”
Emma Corrin plays Cassandra Nova, the villain in Deadpool and Wolverine who draws inspiration from Willy Wonka, alongside Reynolds and Jackman. A huge list of well-known actors make brief appearances in the movie, however Taylor Swift won’t play Dazzler.
Hugh Jackman talks about his 1999 Wolverine audition and how worried he was about not getting the part.
Another actor had already been cast as Wolverine, but had to step away.
This month’s Deadpool & Wolverine has Hugh Jackman reprising his role as Wolverine, however the Australian actor’s career-defining part nearly never came to pass. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jackman and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige talked about Jackman’s legacy as Wolverine, recalling their first encounter in 1999 and the steak supper that followed Jackman’s initial audition for the part.
Although Dougray Scott was already contracted to play Wolverine in X-Men, he was forced to abandon the filming of X-Men due to a filming obligation for Mission: Impossible 2. Scott said that Tom Cruise had forbidden him from working on both projects at the same time. As a result, Jackman was brought in at the last minute to recast Wolverine.
Not everything seemed to go well for Jackman when he traveled to Toronto for his own Wolverine tryout. He recalled reading lines for writers Tom DeSanto and director Bryan Singer. Held during a lunch break in the director’s trailer, Jackman described the audition as uncomfortable. “I could tell he was thinking, ‘Why am I trying out this guy for a part I’ve already cast during my lunch break?'” About DeSanto, Jackman remarked, “He was furious.
Feige claimed that there was a “rush” to find an actor to play Wolverine, although Jackman was initially rejected for the character, in part because he is too tall (6′ 3″). Jackman claimed that after leaving the audition with the impression that he wouldn’t land the role, Feige invited DeSanto to dinner rather than sending him “out into the cold” and back to the airport right away.
“I said, ‘Kevin, we all know I’m not getting the part. You don’t have to do dinner,'” Jackman recalled. “But no, he sat in there and had a steak dinner with me and then drove me to the airport. I’ll never forget it. That was the nicest thing. I thought, I’ll never see him again.”
Naturally, Jackman was cast as Wolverine in the X-Men, and he would later play the same character in a number of other movies. He was eventually persuaded to return for Deadpool & Wolverine, even though he had initially thought that 2018’s Logan would be his last role as Wolverine.
When the film opens on July 26, it might not be the last time we see Jackman and Reynolds together in a motion picture. “We have one we’re looking to do soon,” Reynolds hinted.
“I would say that [ours] is like any relationship that is successful and works: It’s that two parties are rooting for each other,” Reynolds stated. “I always want Hugh to win and score goals. I am also aware of every subtlety in his mind, heart, and identity. I can personally attest that he is someone who is not just deserving of support, but also hard not to support.”
