The next Wolverine in the MCU? Five actors to follow Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman won’t be Wolverine forever, so we picked five actors you could actually buy as the MCU’s next Logan.
With Marvel prepping its own X-Men era after Deadpool & Wolverine, the next Wolverine won’t just be a haircut and claws. The role lives in small, specific choices: a coiled temper that can turn on a dime, a bone-deep loneliness, and the sense this guy has been through a century of hurt. Jackman’s take was towering—literally—but the comics’ Logan is shorter, scrappier, and hardly pristine. A fresh face has room to lean into that grit without doing a Jackman impression.
Hugh Jackman has played Wolverine for more than 25 years.
Five smart fits
- Paul Mescal — The quiet storm. In Aftersun and Normal People, Mescal makes devastation feel internal and unspoken; you see it in the pauses. Add the physical prep he’s done for Gladiator II, and you’ve got an actor who could channel Logan’s bruised heart without a lot of words—and then flip to berserker when it counts.
- Glen Powell — The curveball. On the surface he’s smooth and funny, but Top Gun: Maverick, Hit Man and Twisters showed a sharper edge under the charm. Wolverine’s sarcasm is a shield; Powell has the timing for the barbs and the presence to sell the snap when the animal side breaks loose.
- Dacre Montgomery — The live wire. As Stranger Things’ Billy Hargrove, he mixed raw aggression with surprising vulnerability. At 31, he’s the right age to grow with the MCU’s mutant slate, and he already plays like a guy who makes a room tenser just by walking into it.
- Jack O’Connell — The scarred survivor. In Unbroken, ’71, Ferrari and Sinners, O’Connell carries toughness that feels earned, not polished. His work is rough-edged and honest—the exact vibe for a Logan who’s been knocked down a thousand times and keeps getting up.
- Daniel Radcliffe — The bold swing. Post–Harry Potter, he’s chased odd, gutsy projects (Swiss Army Man, Guns Akimbo, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Escape from Pretoria). At about 5-foot-5, he’s closer to the comics’ compact bruiser, and he’s spent a decade breaking expectations—useful when you’re stepping into an icon.
The usual suspects
Plenty of fan favorites get kicked around for Logan—some for years. If Marvel wants a more familiar lane, you’ll still hear these names:
- Jeremy Allen White
- Jensen Ackles
- Karl Urban
- Nicholas Hoult
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson
- Henry Cavill
Whoever lands the claws, the key is resisting a copy-and-paste of Jackman’s swagger and finding the broken, funny, feral center that makes Wolverine tick. Marvel hasn’t announced its MCU Wolverine casting—or timeline—yet.