Viggo Mortensen Turned Down Marvel's Wolverine For A Good Reason

Viggo Mortensen hasn't had a typical Hollywood career. The Aragorn actor's unique path includes a stubbornness to stick with projects, even when "bigger fish" come along, and a reluctance to take on things he doesn't want to do. This has kept him on the fringe of major franchises, even things as big as the comic book kingdom of Marvel. When it comes to the superhero genre, Mortensen's self-sidelining even predates his Middle-earth involvement, as the actor famously turned down the role of Wolverine before it was offered to Hugh Jackman.

While Mortensen's dismissal of the clawed X-Men staple is well-documented, his reasoning behind turning down the role became clearer in a more recent interview. Mortensen appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, explaining that he had taken his then-eight-year-old son, Henry, to his interview in LA. No sooner had they walked into director Bryan Singer's office than the boy pointed out that the Wolverine mock-up for the movie didn't look comic-book accurate. Here's the story in Mortensen's own words:

"I asked, 'Can I bring my son? [...] He knows a lot about this. That's his favorite comic book character at this moment. Wolverine. He knows everything. So I'd love to bring him as my good luck charm and guide. [...] I did let Henry read [the script], and he goes, 'This is wrong. This is wrong. That's not how it is.'"

According to Mortensen, Singer spent the rest of the meeting defending the creative liberties for the adaptation. Henry didn't approve. Mortensen did clarify that it wasn't purely his son's distaste for the lack of accuracy that led him to turn down the role. He added the crucial factor:

"The thing that bothered me at the time was just the commitment of endless movies of that same character over and over. I was nervous about that."

It's a fair consideration, considering the 11 movies over nearly two decades that Jackman has inhabited that role.

While Mortensen's son, Henry, talked him out of the Wolverine role, he did end up pushing him toward his most iconic on-screen character a few years later. According to an interview with Collider, when he was approached to play Aragorn, he said:

"My son was really into me doing it, and he was 11 at the time, and that kind of pushed me over the edge to say, 'Yeah, okay.' And obviously, I'm glad I did it."

Once again, Henry's influence didn't stand alone. Along with his son's approval, working on a Tolkien project had a deeper allure to the Danish-American actor. It was rooted in things like Celtic and Nordic mythology, literature, and history.

Even so, Mortensen didn't have a smooth entry into Peter Jackson's trilogy. Rather than have his say in accepting or turning down the role, Mortensen was initially overlooked in favor of the younger Irish actor Stuart Townsend. However, once filming started, it was decided that Townsend's youth was actually working against him in his portrayal of the 87-year-old Ranger. Townsend was let go, and Mortensen got a last-minute call, one his son was happy to support this time around.

Viggo Mortensen dodged an excessive commitment in Wolverine. He also kind of got to have his cake and eat it, too. While Aragorn still required excessive shooting, it was a one-time thing. (They filmed all three "Lord of the Rings" movies at the same time.) At the same time, the role made him a household name and a cinematic legend.

Since then, Mortensen has stayed out of the Middle-earth spotlight, despite rumors several years ago about a potential Young Aragorn series that never panned out. There's still a chance that we'll see the key actor reprise the role in the upcoming "The Hunt for Gollum" film, but that is a pending question as the actor sorts out what he's willing to get involved in.

In the meantime, there is another actor who hasn't minded reprising roles — and even taking on more than one across both the Marvel and Middle-earth cinematic landscape: Sir Ian McKellen. The British actor has played Magneto in the "X-Men" franchise as well as Gandalf in both "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" trilogies. He was even ready to return for Amazon Prime's "The Rings of Power" show, but that role ultimately went to a younger actor. Still, McKellen appears coy yet interested in a return for "The Hunt for Gollum." Maybe we'll see him team up with Mortensen again in the upcoming project. Only time will tell, at this point.