Fan speculation went in to overdrive this week over rumours that Henry Cavill would join his DC counterparts Ryan Reynolds and Christian Bale by making the switch to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Cavill is tipped to join the MCU in the role of Wolverine, a character made famous by Australia’s Hugh Jackman in the original X-Men trilogy. The rumours suggest that Cavill would play the role in the upcoming Captain Marvel sequel, in a bid to draw in a more diverse audience.
Rumours of Cavill’s involvement with Marvel first began 10 months ago on reddit with users suggesting that he and Kevin Feige had already met to discuss the role, but speculation ramped up again this week when YouTuber TheQuartering announced Cavill’s debut in Captain Marvel 2.
The reception of the first Captain Marvel film was a mixed bag; it grossed reasonably well at the box office, but performed the lowest of any of the recent Marvel films in it’s critical response, receiving an assigned score of 68/100 on Metacritic and 78% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is not unthinkable that Marvel would be looking for a new character to reinvigorate the story line, especially with a proven-universally loved character like Wolverine, but Cavill’s full schedule means that his appearance in these films is unlikely.
Adding further damper to the flame is the fact that literally no credible sources have come forward to validate the rumour, instead there is just a trail of articles referencing one another as the source of the information.
While fans might be sad that Henry Cavill probably won’t be gracing our screens as Wolverine anytime soon, I for one am not. We’ve already seen someone like Cavill play Wolverine. He’s similar in build and appearance to Hugh Jackman, and nobody can own the character like Jackman did. If Marvel and Feige do indeed plan to bring Wolverine back, then they need to do something different. Otherwise the character will always be living in Jackman’s shadow.
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