See Why This Famous Actor Turned Down The Role Of Wolverine

It’s difficult to imagine anyone but Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, for 17 years the actor made the role his own, giving a legendary performance across numerous films in the X-Men franchise.

It’s interesting to note that Jackman wasn’t always the one set to play Weapon X, as another Aussie actor was considered before Hugh’s name came up. That’d be Russell Crowe, who was eyed for Wolverine back when Bryan Singer’s X-Men was taking shape back in 2000. He didn’t accept the part and in a recent interview, the star opened up about why exactly he passed. Apparently, it had to do with wolves.

He said “Bryan was a friend at the time and he was really putting the pressure on. If you remember, Maximus has a wolf at the center of his cuirass, and he has a wolf as his companion … which I thought was going to be a bigger deal [at the time]. So I said no because I didn’t want to be ‘wolfy’, like ‘Mr. Wolf’.”