Nick Offerman Could Have Played One Of Marvel's Most Iconic Characters

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Hugh Jackman is pretty inseparable from Wolverine at this point. Troye Sivan in the opening flashback of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and a certain cameo in "Deadpool & Wolverine" aside, Jackman is the only actor to play Logan on the big screen. He's been doing it for 25 years (almost) straight at this point, too. ("Till you're 90.")

But back in the late 1990s, when the first "X-Men" movie was still coming together, Jackman was a musical and theatre star not hugely famous outside his native Australia. (His breakout part was in the 1998 West End production of "Oklahoma!," filmed for subsequent wide release in 1999.) Suffice to say, he wasn't the instant number one pick for Logan, so "X-Men" held auditions to find the right actor.

For starters, the role of Wolverine was famously Dougray Scott's, but he had to drop out to film "Mission: Impossible II." Jackman's career as Wolverine began with him being the understudy. Scott wasn't the only unused Logan, either. Nick Offerman has mentioned several times over the years, most recently on the "Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning" press tour, that he auditioned to be Wolverine in the 2000 "X-Men" movie.

In a red carpet conversation with film journalist Kevin McCarthy, Offerman recounted, "Wolverine was my favorite comic book character ... I learned in my 20s that if I wanted something really badly, it would never happen."

Back in 2013, Offerman told Newsrama, "I always felt when I was younger, I could have taken a good crack at Wolverine," revealing himself as a big comic book fan. One of his other favorite Marvel characters is Ben Grimm/The Thing from the Fantastic Four, and as for his favorite comics books/writers? "I love '100 Bullets,' 'Preacher' — love 'Preacher' — 'Powers,' I'm a big fan of [Brian Michael] Bendis and Garth Ennis and Ed Brubaker," he replied.

So, Offerman stands on good ground when claiming he could play Wolverine. In 2015, he was even one of the actors who Conan O'Brien had "audition" to replace Jackman as Wolverine, alongside Patton Oswalt, Betty White, Michael Sheen, and more.

The joke is, of course, that none of these actors are actually good picks for Wolverine because they're nothing like Jackman. But O'Brien was onto something else with Offerman because I see the vision of him as Wolverine.

Offerman's most famous role is definitely the stone-faced (but hilarious) macho libertarian Ron Swanson on the sitcom "Parks and Recreation." What is Wolverine if not the Ron Swanson of the X-Men? He's the team's breakout character and the grumpy dad/older brother of the group. Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) is to Ron as Kitty Pryde is to Logan.

All kidding aside, Offerman is a closer match to comic Logan than even Jackman is. It's a common refrain that Jackman's performance as Wolverine is extra impressive because he doesn't look like the comic Logan, and that's because it's true! Comic Wolverine is short but burly, covered in thick and messy body hair, and has a scraggly brick face. Influential "X-Men" writer Chris Claremont has even said that his pick for Wolverine in an "X-Men" movie would've been Bob Hoskins.

Offerman is still too tall (5 '11), but in his stern stare and lumberjack beard, I see the Wolverine first drawn by Dave Cockrum and then John Byrne in Claremont's early "X-Men" comics. Offerman often looks like a taciturn guy who you don't want to piss off, which is exactly what Logan should look like. The one question I have is if Offerman could tap into Wolverine's berserker rage.

As shown by his performance as Ron Swanson, Offerman is funniest when he's calm or containing seething fury. That's even the case in his dramatic roles like Dick McDonald in "The Founder" or Bill in "The Last of Us." Part of this is that he has a soothing voice, which he most recently put to work as the narrator in Stephen King and Mike Flanagan's "Life of Chuck." Jackman never passed as a man who'd be compared to a Wolverine (a small but vicious animal) because of his height, but he can and has absolutely played Logan with the temper of a beast.

Now, Offerman specifically said (in 2013) that he could've been Wolverine when he was younger. That seems to suggest he thinks his time has long passed, so we'll never know how well he could tap into Logan's fury. But you never know! Heck, go further and cast Offerman's redhead wife Megan Mullally as Jean Grey.