Hugh Jackman is known for his portrayal of Wolverine in the X-Men cinematic universe but the role could have gone to Lord of the Rings star, Viggo Mortensen.
The Daily Beast spoke with Mortensen who explained he was offered the role, before he joined the cast of Lord of the Rings.
“I was offered Wolverine for the first movie—I guess it would have been for the franchise then,” explained Mortensen. "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.’”
The reason he turned down the offer was because he had a project that conflicted with the X-Men schedule.
X-Men wasn't the only franchise Mortensen has been offered a part in. He was given two different offers to be a part of Zack Snyder's Man of Steel. “Every once in a while, I get an offer like that. I was offered two different parts in the last Superman movie they made, but I wasn’t available to do that either,” said Mortensen.
Despite living in Spain and staying far away from the Hollywood lifestyle, Mortensen is still working in film and recently received a career tribute at Morocco’s Marrakech Film Festival, Variety reported.
Image courtesy of INFphoto.com