Almost every James Bond fan knows that Hugh Jackman turned down the opportunity to replace Pierce Brosnan as cinema’s most famous secret agent before it was officially decided that a complete creative overhaul of the franchise was needed.
Jackman was gearing up to start shooting X-Men 2 at the time, so this would have been before Brosnan’s final outing in Die Another Day was even released in November 2002. Fast forward three years later and Daniel Craig was announced to be inheriting the mantle, having beaten out young upstart Henry Cavill when Casino Royale director Martin Campbell was settling on his new Bond.
Craig and Jackman are friends, with the No Time to Die star revealing it was the longtime Wolverine who helped him deal with overnight stardom following the success of Casino Royale. But in a hilarious new interview, he unequivocally ruled his buddy out of the running, which Jackman ended up retweeting.
Jackman would have been an interesting choice to play James Bond, especially when he hadn’t quite reached the top of the A-list in the aftermath of his debut as Logan, but he’d have been a very busy man were he to have ended up as 007 and Wolverine at the same time. No Time to Die hasn’t hit theaters yet, but the questions have already inevitably already turned to Craig’s successor.