I was discussing it with a friend the other day and she thought my choice was mental but I’ve got quite a few valid reasons for why I think he’d be the ideal choice to play him. It was this guy here;
Elijah Wood.
Now, on first glance it seems a ridiculous choice, I know. But there’s actually several reasons behind why I think he’d be ideal to play him.
First off, there’s his height. As comic readers know, Wolverine is supposed to be really short for a guy (5′3″) and although I’ve always liked how Hugh Jackman has portrayed him on the big screen (shame about the solo films being rather poor- other than Logan that is) the fact is he’s far too tall in my opinion. He’s 6′2″ so nearly a full foot taller and, although they’d do tricks to make him appear shorter because he’s the same height as Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth in reality, you really need someone shorter. Elijah Wood’s height (in feet) varies between sources but he’s normally listed to be either 5′5″ or 5′6″ so both of those are below average height and only 2/3 inches off Wolverine’s official height.
Secondly, his appearance. The picture up above shows him looking suitably serious and bearded for the role of Wolverine but another thing (which my friend initially said was “completely wrong”) is his eye colour. In the comics Wolverine’s eye colour (oddly) tends to vary and they’re sometimes shown as darker (much like Jackman’s) but he’s pretty frequently drawn with absolutely piercing bright blue eyes, seen here;
And, as the above picture of Elijah shows, he certainly matches him there. This picture as well shows him both suitably dishevelled and bearded to give a further example;
When you look at the two alongside each other then they’re really pretty similar to each other so, facially and height wise, he suits the role.
Thirdly, he’s also played a role before which, although darker than Wolverine’s personality, was stylistically pretty similar to him in a fighting sense. The role I’m meaning was that of Kevin from 2005’s Sin City;
The way he fought Marv in that was attacking from the shadows and striking him with razor sharp claws. Obviously the “razor sharp claws” in the film were more like Sabretooth’s but, same time, switching the finger claws for three blades on each hand doesn’t take much imagination. And, again obviously, Wolverine is often known for charging in head first and relying on his healing factor to carry him through fights but he’s often shown using similar stealthy tactics and hitting the unwary too so, again, it wouldn’t take much imagination to picture him doing the same as Wolverine.
The other issue my friend had was that “he’s too young” to play him. Again though, if you take Hugh Jackman’s age when he first took the role he was 31 when he appeared in X-Men and Elijah Wood is 36 right now and fast approaching 37 so he’s fairly near middle-aged which is how the present day Wolverine is usually drawn.
So, yeah. I reckon that Elijah Wood would be the best person for the role if you’re looking for someone who would remain pretty faithful to the comic character’s roots and he’s already shown that he can perform good action scenes as well. He may need to bulk up a little for the role but fairly sure that wouldn’t be much of an issue for him.
