Along with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and the first Blade movie, X-Men established comic book movies as a viable source of income for Hollywood studios. The success of X-Men started a chain reaction that eventually led to Marvel’s domination of the entire moviegoing landscape. In order to attain this level of success, the mutants at the heart of the story had to be cast just right.
Two of the stars of the movie are Wolverine and Storm, a pair of the most iconic superheroes ever created. The casting team found the perfect actors in Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry, but they weren’t the first choices for the roles.
Wolverine: Russell Crowe
While Hugh Jackman would go on to make unforgettable icons out of both himself and the role of Wolverine, the producers’ top choice for the character was actually Russell Crowe.
However, Crowe felt that the role of a brooding, violent dude with a tragic past was a little too similar to the role of Maximus in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, which he’d just made when the offer came in, so he turned down the part.
Storm: Mariah Carey
Before Halle Berry was chosen to play Storm (and knocked it out of the park), the producers surprisingly considered singer Mariah Carey for the part.
While Carey has a five-octave vocal range, her acting abilities don’t reach very far, as the crushing failure of her critically panned starring vehicle Glitter can attest to.
Wolverine: Dougray Scott
Dougray Scott was cast in the role of Wolverine initially, but dropped out of the movie early into filming due to scheduling clashes with Mission: Impossible II, as well as sustaining an injury from a motorcycle accident. It wasn’t meant to be, so Scott was out and the role of Wolvie needed to be filled.
Russell Crowe suggested his friend Hugh Jackman, whose audition impressed the producers enough to hire him. But since filming was already underway and Jackman was thrown in at the deep end, it took him a few weeks to perfect his performance.
Storm: Janet Jackson
In addition to considering Mariah Carey to play Storm, the X-Men producers considered one more pop sensation, Janet Jackson, for the role.
Although she’s more of a musician than an actor like Carey, Jackson’s acting range stretches a little further. She’s appeared in sitcoms like Good Times and Diff’rent Strokes, as well as a few movies like Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.
Wolverine: Keanu Reeves
Before Hugh Jackman was cast as Wolverine, the producers considered Keanu Reeves – hot off of one of his many career comebacks, this time with The Matrix – for the role.
Funnily enough, now that Marvel Studios needs to cast a new Wolverine and Reeves is more popular than ever thanks to the John Wick franchise (and just generally being a zen, awesome guy), he’s become a popular fan casting for the new incarnation of the role.
Storm: Jada Pinkett-Smith
After Janet Jackson turned down the role of Storm, Jada Pinkett-Smith was under consideration for the part. This was a few years after Pinkett-Smith’s big break in Menace II Society, but a couple of years before she’d be headlining major blockbusters like The Matrix sequels and the Madagascar movies.
Interestingly, while Jackson played the love interest in Nutty Professor II, Pinkett-Smith had played the love interest in the first Nutty Professor movie, so two of Sherman Klump’s romantic partners were up for this part.
Wolverine: Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen was considered for the role of Wolverine before he was cast to replace Stuart Townsend in the role of Aragorn in the middle of filming The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Before Hugh Jackman was cast, the producers also looked at Aaron Eckhart (who went on to play Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight), Mel Gibson, Jackie Earle Haley, Edward Norton (who went on to play Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk), Gary Sinise, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Storm: Angela Bassett
In the late ‘80s, James Cameron’s production company was in negotiations with Stan Lee and Chris Claremont about potentially adapting the X-Men comics for the screen. Titled Wolverine and the X-Men, Cameron was set to produce the movie with Kathryn Bigelow directing and Gary Goldman writing the script.
Angela Bassett was set to play Storm in the movie. Bassett has since appeared in a few comic book blockbusters, playing Amanda Waller in 2011’s Green Lantern and T’Challa’s stepmother Ramonda in Black Panther and Avengers: Endgame.
Wolverine: Bob Hoskins
In James Cameron’s aforementioned unrealized Wolverine and the X-Men project, in addition to Angela Bassett playing Storm, Bob Hoskins was set to play Wolverine. Based on his turn as a Cockney crime boss in The Long Good Friday, Hoskins probably could’ve played a gruff, grizzled, violent Wolverine with a lot of nuance and pathos.
The project was eventually scrapped so that Cameron could focus on making an R-rated Spider-Man movie with Leonardo DiCaprio as Peter Parker and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Doctor Octopus (which also ultimately remained unproduced).