At Celebrity Fan Fest in San Antonio, Texas, Aquaman star Jason Momoa revealed he'd love to portray Wolverine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While that was an off-the-cuff response to a fan's question and shouldn't be taken as a plea to be rescued from the DC Extended Universe, it's still raises an interesting question: would Jason Momoa be a good Wolverine?
Since Hugh Jackman's retirement from the role of Logan, the Disney and 21st Century Fox merger is set to bring the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point in the relatively near future. While fans will probably be speculating about who will play Wolverine in the MCU for years to come, Momoa is a DC superstar, and it would be a headline-making coup for Marvel Studios to recruit him for the role.
Realistically, the chances of Momoabeing cast in the role are extremely low, especially after the billion-dollar box office success of Aquaman. Warner Bros. and DC are unlikely to part ways with Momoa any time soon, and he seems to hold a fondness in his heart for Arthur Curry and the underworld of Atlantis. While a few actors who've played minor characters have jumped between the MCU and the DCEU, Momoa's contract is likely watertight right now.
Still, the prospect of seeing him as Logan is an interesting what-if scenario. Even before he was cast as Aquaman in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, numerous fan castings suggested Momoa for the part of Lobo, the intergalactic bounty hunter and DC's closest analogue to Wolverine. The actor himself thought he was being auditioned for the role of the Main Man when director Zack Snyder first screen-tested him.
"There was a lot of things that went through my head when he said Aquaman. There were a lot of things that went through my mind," Momoa told ET Canada while talking about the casting process. "I was thinking like,'‘Lobo.' I’m gonna play some kind of bad guy. I'm like, 'Who am I gonna play?' And yeah, he said Aquaman. I was just like, 'Come again? Pardon me?' And then he explained why. I was like, 'Whoa, buddy. I got your back.'"
It really isn't too difficult to imagine Momoa as a cigar-chomping, boot-stomping antihero who isn't afraid to leave a pile of bodies in his wake. And that's exactly what Logan has been like in the comic books as he's spent decades slicing and dicing his way through North America, Madripoor and Japan.
However, the MCU will delve too deeply into his more violent nature and tendencies, like James Mangold's Logan did, and it will probably toning down the Wolverine's rage to a bloodless, PG-13 rampage.
Although Momoa is much taller and bulkier than the famously short Logan usually is in comics, that's a non-issue here. While Momoa is two inches taller than Jackman, it's evident that a fictional character's height doesn't really matter to filmmakers as much as his attitude does. Jackman's career-defining tenure as Wolverine proved that comic book accuracy isn't necessarily the best option and audiences can be swayed by an outstanding performance. Simply put, if Momoa was ever cast the mutant, his height won't matter at all.
Besides his rugged look and superhero experience, Momoa also has serious action credibility, having starred as the titular character in 2011's Conan the Barbarian and Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones. Hie role on Game of Thrones cemented him as a household name and a force to be reckoned with in the entertainment industry. As such, he's quickly becoming a name you associate with tough-as-nails characters on screen and a genre specialist in the same mold as Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel.
Any actor who portrays one of the most dangerous fighters in comic book history needs to be believably savage, and no one can suggest that Momoa is unbelievable as a warrior. As unlikely as it is to happen, Momoa would be a near-perfect choice to portray Wolverine the MCU.