Viggo Mortensen Turned Down Wolverine Role Because He Didn't Want To Commit To "Endless" Movies" - 8days Skip to main content

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Viggo Mortensen Turned Down Wolverine Role Because He Didn't Want To Commit To "Endless" Movies"

But he ended up playing Aragon in the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. Go figure.

Viggo Mortensen Turned Down Wolverine Role Because He Didn't Want To Commit To "Endless" Movies"

Viggo Mortensen turned down the role of Wolverine as he didn't want to play the role in "endless" movies.

The 62-year-old actor was approached to play the clawed mutant superhero in the first X-Men movie in 2000 but rejected the opportunity to be in the Marvel film as he didn't want to commit to several sequels.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Viggo said: "The thing that bothered me at the time was just the commitment of endless movies of the same character over and over. I was nervous about that."

The Green Book star recalled how he took his son Henry to a meeting with director Bryan Singer, where the comic book fan pointed out that some elements of the character weren't up to scratch with the Marvel comics.

Viggo said: "And also there were some things, I mean they straightened most of them out, but I did take Henry to the meeting I had with the director as my sort of good luck charm and guide.

"In the back of my mind, I was thinking he could learn something too, because I did let Henry read the script and he goes, 'This is wrong, that's now how it is.'"

He continued: "We walked out of there and Henry asks if [Singer] will change the things he told him about and I say, 'I don't think so.'

"I'm not going to do it anyway, because I'm not sure I want to be doing this for year, and then a couple of years later I'm doing three Lord of the Rings so who knows."

Viggo went on to play Aragon in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy over the years of 1999 to 2003.

Hugh Jackman eventually landed the Wolverine role (after scheduling conflicts forced original choice Dougray Scott to vacate the part) and portrayed the mutant with regenerative powers in seven movies over a 17-year period from 2000 to 2017.

Looking back, Viggo is adamant the part went to the right man for the job.

He said: "I think he did great. I'm sure no-one could imagine anyone doing it better than he did anyway." — BANG

Photos: TPG News/Click Photos

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