February 19, 2008 | by Niall Browne 

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Casting Round-Up

wolve1-1.gifWe all knew that Hugh Jackman was in it. And we’d heard that Liev Schreiber would probably be playing Sabretooth, but other than that news has been quiet on the X-Men Origins: Wolverine casting front.

Until now.

First up, Joblo is reporting that Danny Huston, son of the legendary John Huston has signed up to play William Stryker, the character previously played by the great Brian Cox in X-Men 2.

IESB states that Lynn Collins, who has starred in such quality films as 13 Going on 30, The Number 23 and The Lake House will be starring as Wolverine’s love interest Kayla Silverfox.

AICN is stating that fan favorite Ryan Reynolds will be playing Deadpool, apparently a cameo that will lead to his own spin-off film.

Meanwhile, Empire magazine is saying that Taylor Kitsch from TV’s Friday Night Lights has snagged the role of Gambit, a character that X-Men fans have been waiting to see on the screen since before the birth of Christ (well, Mel Gibson’s screen version at least).

There are also reports that The Blob will make an appearance in the film. The character will be huge, so HUGE in fact that he will be a combination of an actor in a fat suit and CGI. Yes you read that correctly.

So what does all this mean?


It means that I smell bad things cooking in the kitchen!

It looks like this film is going to be jam-packed with characters from the Marvel universe, and I don’t think that this is a good thing.

It just seems to be one big excuse to set up other film franchises rather than explore the character of Wolverine. It appears as if Hugh Jackman doesn’t care anymore about the character and he wants as little screen time possible with the biggest paycheck he can get.

Say it isn’t so Hugh!!!

Marvel obviously wants to cross-reference every character that they can. I’m waiting for Howard the Duck to be cast at any minute. Quick (Quack), get on the phone to Danny De Vito’s agent – ASAP!

Schreiber as Sabretooth I can live with. The guy is a great actor, he looks like my brother, sounds like Dustin Hoffman and I kind of feel sorry for the guy that the John Clark franchise (from the Tom Clancy novels) never panned out. Oh, and if the Sabretooth character is going to reappear, then at least he should be a good actor.

Danny Houston, looks like a Cox, so why not cast him. :-)

Lynn Collins is obviously generic female sidekick material, so why not. As for Ryan Reynolds… give the guy a film of his own if you want. Don’t stick him in here.

The same goes for Gambit. Better still: plonk him in another, younger and cheaper X-Men film.

As for The Blob, well the less said about this idea the better. Fat suits and CGI? What a terrible combination. Hugh, didn’t you learn anything from Van Helsing? Anything?
Lets hope that it is a bad joke, or at the very least a plan that doesn’t make it to the final product.

That’s pretty much it for now, but don’t be surprised if you see the entire Screen Rant team cast in X-Men Origins: Wolverine in the coming weeks. We all look good in Spandex!

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is scheduled to open on May 1st, 2009

Sources: Joblo, IESB, AICN ,Empire and Film School Rejects

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Tags: wolverine, x-men,

  • jeff nielsen
    i personaly belive that if ann paquin or watever her last name is, isnt rouge in the upcoming x-men movie i might not wach it! becouse she was AMAZING as rouge, and if you havent seen her in the new show TRU BLOOD on h.b.o. you probobly should cuz shes an awsom actress!
  • moussai abdelmalk
    bonjour,lettre de motivation :je suis jeune algerien de 26 ans, blanc ,sportif,actif,aime exploiter mon potentiel emotionel dans le cinema
    pornographique,faire de pub du sex,j'ai une trée belle puissance sexuelle..déja j'ai fais des essays encouragente en MAROC et en TUNISIE et c'était bien marché et je suis sur que je vais vous surprendre.......j'ai mes propres moyens pour les frais de déplacement et d'hébergement .veuillez a m'envoyer l'invitation au casting par adrèsse postale pour me préparer a vous rejoindre.merci,
    e-mail: moussai_abm@yahoo.fr
  • taylor
    okay... juggernauts not a mutant, so leech's power wouldnt have affected him in x3, but other than that yeah bullettooth was wellcasted, but they left a lot out of juggernauts story. beast in x3 wasnt true to the character, though very well acted by frasier, beast was part of the original team in the book, before he was blue when he joined the avengers after the xmen drafted a lot of the characters from the rest of the world in the 70s (storm/africa, colossus/russia, nightcrawler/germany, wolverine/canada, banshee/scotland, etc) it sounds like a lot of you are basing your opinions on the history you learned from the tv show. but yes, gambit doesnt make sense being in the ww2 era, he didnt even get to the books until the late 80s early 90s or something. its also recently come to light (correction, been theorized) that sinister and apocolypse helped to CREATE gambit using sinister genes among others, thus why both sinister and gambit have red eyes and are clever as hell. i dont know what to think about all the incongruence of these characters, but thats quite in parallel with the other xmen movies, which took general shells of the characters (pretty much their mutant powers, and hair colors, with the exception of wolverine) and made up their entire own story. they should have called it ultimate xmen 1-3 (if your not familiar with the ultimate marvel books they do the same thing where they recreate/alter back stories.) i hope the wolverine movie changes time periods and thats why they have all these other characters that shouldnt be around in the 30s/40s around (even though the only one people seem to be noticing as one of these is gambit.)
    kyle: you said maverick is missing but he's not, there just calling him agent zero, a name he went by before and after maverick.
    'marvel:' gambit is your favorite xmen character, not the best.

    ps endri your spelling makes my eye twitch, not limited to spelling remy lebeau ramy lebu
  • gambit is the best xmen character
  • quicksilver
    the suits at the studio hate us. somebody please change the actors they want to play the characters. PLEASE !!!
  • steve adams
    Gheesh Endri you make it sound like I'm in a for a ass woopin by Gambit himself. LOL.
  • Panda
    Steve-
    No, it's not a big deal. The only reason I keep harping on it is because he is a popular character left out of the X-men movies so it's a chance to get more fans to see Wolverine.

    I remember an episode of Attack of the Show (pop-culture news show on G4 for anyone who isn't familiar) where they announced a laundry list of characters with cameos in the then upcoming X3, and that Gambit was removed. I think the quote was something like "they're casting for a bunch of chareacters that no one cares about and purposefully leaving out the one that many people want to see? That's smart."

    I'm not some marvel purist, if it works in the movie, it works.
  • Panda
    Clarification - Gambit transfers energy through touch (ie. fingers), not his eyes.

    Anyway, he is not known as a leader like Cyclops. I think he has more control over his power than, say, Cyclops or Rougue. Anyway, maybe he would fit in Wolverine as a young Weapon-X recruit training to control his powers in a short cameo.
  • endri
    Dude if you realy knew Gambit you would never say that.
  • steve adams
    I don't know about you Jim, but Gambit's description didn't sound all that mind blowing. Basically another Cyclops.
    ^
    And this character showing up in Wolverine is a major deal?
  • Jim Carey
    Cool! Thanks Panda!
  • Panda
    Jim Carey -
    Gambit has black and red eyes, and transmits energy through objects that basically makes them explode when thrown. He uses playing cards mostly. He's known as a lady's man and was Rogue's love interest for a time. He is from Louisiana with a cajun accent.

    I read a rumor that Singer considered having Gambit in X2 but decided not to since his power too similar to Cyclops(?)

    If he's in the movie, he'll mostly likely have the black / red eyes and shuffle cards a lot. Probably won't speak french though (based on how the movies have gone so far). His first appearance will probably be with some model-material under his arm.
  • Eh, I think I'll just leave it as "Wolverine." The title is a bit longish to put there and I think most people look for "Wolverine movie."

    And Steve, I just noticed this:

    "Let's hope they don't violate Iron Man canon too much or I think this site will implode with all the posts."

    Hysterical. :-)

    Vic
  • Jim Carey
    Hey Vic, are you going to change the movie title (on the right side of the web page) to reflect the apparent name change?
  • Jim Carey
    Endri, thanks for the info about Yuriko and Sabretooth.

    I stopped collecting X-Men a looong time ago, some time after the original (only) Starjammers story. Dave Cockrum is one of my all time favorite artists. I think John Byrne took over...I read some of his stories too. BUT, I know very little about Gambit. Without going all Wiki, would anyone like to give a thumbnail description for us laggers?

    Thanks.
  • John "Kahless" Taylor
    I suppose if I didn't know soo much about Juggs, I would think he was cool as well. I still believe they missed a grand opportunity by not having Collosus fight Juggs.

    Kyle, didn't Maverick just oppose the agents of the Weapon X program? He would be a good addition to the movie.
  • Kyle
    So there's Wolverine, Sabretooth, Silver Fox, John Wraith, and Deadpool in this movie. There's only one major Weapon X guy missing: Maverick! I am hoping he'll be in this. It was rumored someplace.
  • steve adams
    Panda, I consider my self an X-men fan.

    Yet I've never heard of Gambit before...
    ^
    I think you have to realise alot of us have no idea who your talking about.

    Just fyi.
  • Panda
    Um, I don't think Exiles counts... but point taken: it's a fictional universe and the creative forces can do whatever they want. I still believe that introducing Gambit smacks of effort to attract X-Men fans turned off by the last movie.
  • endri
    I just found out that Gambit was a part of Weapon X in the Exile series.

    If you go to thise place you wil see.

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bb/Gambit023.jpg
  • steve adams
    Agreed, they should have given Cyclops more. I liked his scenes in X2 but he was jipped in X3 but then we all were.
    ^
    I allways had the impression that Jackman only did Wolverine because he had some input and control in the story.

    He's like the Shatner on the set allways taking all the great scenes and lines...
    ^
    Now he's worked himself into another 3 film deal. He must have a great agent.
  • Panda
    Juggernaut was ok, Beast was still the best addition. And still too much Wolverine. Cyclops, one of the original X-Men, had about 10 minutes in X2 and X3, and Wolverine was in every scene.

    Fine, give Wolverine his own movie, but limit the cameos and supporting characters to those that belong in his origin story for crying out loud.

    I could even live with an appearance or reference to a young Prof X or Magneto to link the X-Men films to this one, but why-oh-why Gambit? To try to attract all the comic fans that were alienated with X3?

    Next we'll hear that Christian Slater is cast as Sinister. I think Vince Vaughn is free, give him a belt with an "A" on it so he can be Apocalypse for 3 seconds in the film. Sheesh
  • I thought they selected a great guy to play Juggernaut. Dude was freaking HUGE!

    Vic
  • steve adams
    Haha... I was waiting for somebody to agree with me that Juggernaut was cool...
    ^
    Yea I remember the Spiderman cartoons and the mechanical web shooters. The film I think was better in a way. His powers seemed more real that he spun the web out of his arms. That's one intense spider bite sheeeesh.
    ^
    Yea MJ, I just fast forward thru those scenes. That's the only thing I didn't like about the Spiderman films.
  • Andy
    "...Myself, I'm not familiar with all the X-men canon so I liked Juggs...."

    I like Juggs, too, Steve.... :P

    In all seriousness, though, I don't care if the movie sticks to the comic EXACTLY as long as the spirit of the original is there. Spider-Man and the web-shooters, for instance. In the movie he got them from the spider bite, but in the comic he made them mechanically. Either way is fine because the STORY itself was still the same Spidey we all grew up loving....although I still don't like Kirsten Dunst as MJ....
  • steve adams
    Well I liked the actor that played Juggernaut. I thought they picked a good one.
    ^
    Knowing all the comic book canon on these superheros is kinda a double edged sword, you expect alot yet are often let down by the film versions.

    Myself, I'm not familiar with all the X-men canon so I liked Juggs.
    The rest of the film I thought was pretty bad though.
    ^
    Let's hope they don't violate Iron Man canon too much or I think this site will implode with all the posts.
  • John "Kahless" Taylor
    A Wolverine origin film must have Sabretooth, Silver Fox, Deadpool, and Silver Samurai. While I like Gambit, he should only have a few seconds of screen time, in preparation for his own movie.

    I read where someone thought the Juggernaut was the best addition to X3; well, in my fanboy opinion, he was one of the worst. The Juggernaut in the comic was not a mutant but I could live with that in the movie. In the movie, he was impervious to pain yet he wore a helmet? In the comic, he wore the helmet to shield against Xavier's psi abilities. And of all the problems I had: WHY DIDN'T THEY HAVE HIM FIGHT COLLOSUS???!!! That would have been a titanic battle.

    Oh, sorry about yelling. That was the Kahless in me. :o)
  • endri
    Panda for Ramy I am not completly shure what his past is all I know he was adopted by the chifes of theafs and traind to be agreate theif.

    But for Yuriko and Sabertooth You are right. For people who dont know Yuriko is his lover but then becomes his enemy cuz she thought wolverine stole her fathers work and killed him.

    Now for Sabertooth he used to be Logans partner but then he turns into his archenemy.
  • Gary
    If it is primarily a Wolverine fim thats great.
    If it has too many characters forget about it.
    I am interested in a Wolverine film,
    not a miniXMen film.
    I have been worried about this since they changed the title.
  • steve adams
    I've had a few beers.
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