Everything Daniel Radcliffe has said about playing Wolverine

The rumors about Harry Potter alum Daniel Radcliffe possibly taking on the role of the X-Men’s Wolverine have been swirling for years now, but fans just won’t give up on the idea. Like many actors who were catapulted to stardom through blockbuster franchises, Radcliffe has basically abandoned huge movie series after concluding his time as The Boy Who Lived in 2011. But given the chance, would the popular actor be open to playing a Marvel character?

Going back to a major franchise wouldn’t be a complete shock. Let’s take a fellow Harry Potter alum, Robert Pattinson, for instance. The Independent Spirit Award nominee went from the Wizarding World to the Twilight series, where he became both a heartthrob and an actor no one took seriously. Understandably, he made a change to his career path pretty quickly, starring in multiple indie movies and receiving tons of praise for his eccentric roles and willingness to take risks. But fast forward to 2019, and it was announced that Pattinson would be playing Bruce Wayne in the upcoming Matt Reeves film The Batman.

Pattinson is a great example of a versatile actor who continues to surprise us, and perhaps Daniel Radcliffe could follow a similar journey. So let’s get into the actual possibility of him playing the next Wolverine. What has the 31-year-old said about taking on the coveted role of Logan?

Daniel Radcliffe as Wolverine

It looks like Daniel Radcliffe has spoken out a few times in the past couple of years about playing the iconic comic book character. In February 2019, as reported by NME, Radcliffe took part in one of Wired’s video series, in which he had to answer the most-searched questions about him on the internet. In the video, he joked that he was going to play the next Wolverine, stating:

"There’s going to be a new Wolverine movie, in which it starts off with Hugh Jackman being put into a hot wash. And then when he comes out, it’s me. So yes, I’m very happy to announce that here."

Though Radcliffe was pretty clearly kidding around, fans took the comment and ran with it. This is seemingly how the rumors began. Soon after, he clarified to IGN that it was a joke, saying:

"This is what happens when you make jokes. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just start casting yourself in things by just saying them in interviews? So I guess people have been asking something about me and Wolverine, and I made a joke about [playing] Wolverine after being in a hot wash, like I’d been shrunk in a hot wash, and the internet seems to think that I was putting that out there on my dream board cosmic ordering system."

Considering Hugh Jackman is 6’3 and Daniel Radcliffe stands at 5’5, the height difference would be pretty drastic. But that hasn’t stopped fans from rallying around the idea that Radcliffe could take on the role at some point in the future.

Would Daniel Radcliffe play Wolverine?

A few months later in August 2019, Radcliffe addressed the rumors again and explained why he wouldn’t want to play the part. While speaking to Yahoo Movies UK, the British actor shared:

"There was that whole thing where I made, what I thought was, an obvious joke about, I think, I said that [I’d be] Wolverine if he’d been shrunk in a hot wash, and then people thought that that was serious. I got onto set on my next job in Australia and people were like, ‘so you’re playing Wolverine? That’s awesome man!’ and I was like, ‘no, no, no, that was a joke.’ Most of the films that I love I don’t think I would want to see remade, and I certainly don’t think that I would want to be in the remakes of them."

We’re sorry, Harry Potter fans; it seems Daniel Radcliffe definitely does not want to portray the next Wolverine. If you’re missing the actor on your screens, you’ll have to wait another year until his next movie The Lost City of D is released. The action-comedy stars Radcliffe, Sandra Bullock, and Channing Tatum. It currently has a U.S. release date of April 15, 2022.

But in the meantime, you can still keep daydreaming about Radcliffe suiting up as the popular antihero with this Wolverine fanart. Maybe one day it could happen!