If you went on Twitter for the past 24 hours, you may have caught the announcement that Daniel Radcliffe is playing Wolverine. You may have even found yourself in an argument where you took a stance on his casting as the fan-favorite X-Men.
Well, we’re sad to inform that you just wasted your time. IGN asked Radcliffe directly, and not only is he not playing Wolverine, but he was never even approached for the role.
Don’t feel too bad, though, you weren’t the only one misled by this piece of fake news, some celebrity gossip blogs even reported on it. But where did this rumor even originate?
Wired has a regular series of videos where they ask famous people to answer the questions found on Google’s auto-complete feature. Since Google bases the auto-complete on the most common searches, the idea is that the famous person is being interviewed by the Internet.
So, Wired had Daniel Radcliffe on their show and one question was “is Daniel Radcliffe the new Wolverine?”
“Yea — 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.”
This one is for everyone that tagged me in this today ? – Daniel Radcliffe #wolverine @RealHughJackman #xmen pic.twitter.com/pqAyhzAefZ
— BossLogic (@Bosslogic) February 11, 2019
This was clearly a joke, however, there was a split second where he was about to say “yeah.”
That was probably just a quick moment of hesitation while he was formulating the joke in his head, but it was enough for those who want Radcliffe to play Wolverine to run with the story.
The section of his fandom that wants him to take over for Hugh Jackman is probably not as small as many would think, considering that enough people have googled “Is Daniel Radcliffe going to play Wolverine” for it to appear as an option on Google’s auto-complete.
Not only that, but they’ve seemingly done this apropos of nothing, as before this rumor caught like wildfire there was no apparent reason for anyone to think that he would be cast as Wolverine.
While this whole situation is quite amusing, Radcliffe seemed a little exasperated during the IGN interview, “this is what happens when you make jokes,” he quipped.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe will probably need a Wolverine once the studio regains the rights to the X-Men and after the emotional send-off he received in 2017’s Logan, it’s unlikely we will ever see Hugh Jackman’s version of the character ever again after an18-year run.
