Daniel Radcliffe Responds to Rumor He’s Playing Wolverine

It’s been five years now since the last Hugh Jackman performance as Wolverine in Logan — and thus five years of speculation about who may replace him as the character. And that speculation has only gotten louder since Disney bought 20th Century Fox, bringing the X-Men characters back under their Marvel banner, and setting the stage for a full-fledged movie reboot of the property.

It hasn’t happened yet — and now Jackman is actually returning to play Wolverine at least one more time in Deadpool 3. But eventually he will actually retire, and someone will almost certainly be cast to replace him. But who?

One slightly strange yet persistent rumor is that Daniel Radcliffe is the man for the job. On the one hand, the former Harry Potter is a bit on the slight side to played a buffed up superhero. On the other hand, Wolverine’s a short dude! In the comics he’s supposedly only about 5’3, while Radcliffe is around 5’5. (Jackman is over 6 feet tall.) So with enough protein shakes and weight lifting, Radcliffe-verine is not an outrageous idea.

But Radcliffe himself says it is not going to happen. In a recent interview with GQ, Radcliffe called talk of him as the next Wolverine “purely a press tour rumor.” Adding…

I say something, and then occasionally I get bored of answering that way so I say something different, and that sets it off again. I should just never open my mouth.

He also added that he’s looking for “flexibility” in roles in the future and that he doesn’t “ever want to get locked into something that I am not sure I will be able to love the same amount the whole time.” Given that whoever is cast as the next Wolverine is probably looking at a decade-plus commitment — Jackman is now in his 22nd year as Logan — that would definitely rule Radcliffe out.

So you’ll have to keep speculating for now — and since Jackman isn’t done as Wolverine until at least next fall, there’s no rush to find a replacement now. Radcliffe will next be seen in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story premiering exclusively on the Roku Channel this Friday.