Tom Hardy Was Considered to Play a Young Wolverine in the 'X-Men' Series

Considering Tom Hardy is an acclaimed actor with a number of fan-favorite roles under his belt and an Academy Award nomination, not to mention he looks the part of a superhero, it’s not surprising he has starred in two comic book films. The first came with his part as Bane for DC’s The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and his second in 2018’s Venom, playing the titular Marvel character. And apparently, he almost had the chance at a third role, as one of the most iconic characters from Marvel Comics.

Matthew Vaughn, who directed 2011’s X-Men: First Class, recently spoke with ComingSoon on his plans for the franchise, as he was at one point on board to continue working on the next films in the series. The filmmaker revealed he had big plans for Wolverine, including casting another actor to play a younger version of the character famously portrayed by Hugh Jackman.

"When I finished the Days of Future Past script with it ready to go I looked at it and said, 'I really think it would be fun to cast Tom Hardy or someone as the young Wolverine and then bring it all together at the end,'" Vaughn said, as reported by ComicBook.com. "Fox read Days of Future Past and went 'Oh, this is too good! We’re doing it now!' And I said, 'Well what do you do next? Trust me you’ve got nowhere to go.' Then they did Apocalypse and it’s like… If you flip that ’round even it would have been better. Hollywood doesn’t understand pacing. Their executives are driving 100 miles-per-hour looking in the rear-view mirror and not understanding why they crash."

Vaughn attributes his creative differences with Fox as one of the reasons he ultimately exited the X-Men series. “That’s one of the reasons I didn’t continue, because they didn’t listen to me," he recalled. "My plan was First Class, then second film was new young Wolverine in the 70’s to continue those characters, my version of the X-Men. So you’d really get to know all of them, and my finale was gonna be Days of Future Past.”

Now that Jackman has officially left the role of Wolverine, playing him a final time in the Oscar-nominated film Logan (2017), fans can’t help but speculate who could portray the mutant next. Recently, Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg told GamesRadar he’d like to see Game of Thrones alum Richard Madden, or, get this, Tom Hardy, in the role. To make things even more interesting, Jackman himself suggested Hardy be his successor back in 2015.

While Hardy is already occupied with the Marvel role of Eddie Brock/Venom, it’s important to note that the character is owned by Sony, and is not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With Disney’s recent purchase of Fox, the next Wolverine, whenever the character is revisited, will appear in the MCU. We’re sure fans could get behind Hardy with adamantium claws.

This article also appears on Mental Floss.