20th Century Fox explored a number of avenues before tapping the Australian actor for the role, and had even signed an original deal with Dougray Scott (who had to drop out due to an injury sustained on the Mission: Impossible II set).
Back in 2000, Hugh Jackman became a blockbuster icon playing Wolverine in the first ever X-Men movie – but he famously wasn’t the first choice for the part.
Viggo Mortensen was one of the performers who was on the studio’s wish list back in the late 1990s, but he turned them down, and now he has revealed why: it was too big a commitment, and not faithful enough to the Marvel Comics source material to satisfy his son.