As if all the John Wick action wasn’t enough, Keanu Reeves has said he’d be interested in playing Wolverine.
The actor has had his fair share of memorable roles in the past, and while he’s dabbled in the sci-fi world as Neo in The Matrix, Reeves has never ticked ‘superhero’ off his list – but he’s keen to give it a try.
The 54-year-old spoke to ScreenGeek alongside Alice Eve, who is starring with Reeves in their upcoming film Replicas. Though the film is about a neuroscientist working on the human brain, the stars somehow got to talking about starring in a superhero movie.
I think appearing in a DC or Marvel film is simply a must for actors in Hollywood these days. If you’ve not been a superhero, are you even an actor?
The interviewer recalled a time when Reeves had supposedly been unable to take the role of Wolverine or Batman, but the actor corrected them and explained the roles were actually already filled at that time.
He explained:
No it wasn’t that I couldn’t take it, it was cast.
Reeves’ Replicas co-star Eve argued the actor should stick to his current action-packed John Wick franchise instead of heading into the world of superheroes, saying:
We have John Wick though! What can he do; he can’t be a cheater! You can’t cheat on John!
But it seems Wick’s drama just isn’t enough for Reeves!
Though Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is barely in the ground after the actor ‘retired’ as the superhero after Logan last year, the interviewer prompted Reeves to think about who he’d play now the roles were open.
I think deciding between Batman and Wolverine is a difficult choice. Batman has a lot of cool gadgets and vehicles, but Wolverine does look quite awesome when those claws shoot out.
Reeves obviously didn’t need to weigh up the pros and cons though, because he seemed pretty sure of his answer as he admitted he’s interested in having a go at playing Wolverine.
The actor continued:
Of the two, I’d love to play Wolverine.
Reeves would certainly have some big boots to fill after Jackman’s portrayal of the superhero, but it would be interesting to see a fresh face as the character!
Fox’s next X-Men movie, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, is set to start a new chapter in the long-running series, writer and director Simon Kinberg says.
According to ComicBook, speaking at CCXP in Brazil he said:
I see it as a new chapter. I see it as taking the franchise in a different direction tonally. And that doesn’t mean that the next one will have the same tone, it just means that the next one can have a different tone.
I think for many years, the X-Men, Bryan [Singer] really transformed the superhero genre in 2000 or 2001 when the first one came out. That’s almost 20 years ago. It is a long time ago
We’ll have to see if there’s any room for Reeves to appear as Wolverine at some point in the future!
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.