Viggo Mortensen Talks Turning Down Wolverine & Man Of Steel

Viggo Mortensen has always been in high-demand even previous to landing Aragorn in Lord of the Rings as the actor was offered the part of Wolverine for the 2000 X-Men movie.

Mortensen discusses turning down the Wolverine role with the Daily Beast.

“I was offered Wolverine for the first movie—I guess it would have been for the franchise then,” Mortensen recalls. “That was before I got Lord of the Rings. I remember going to the meeting with the director, Bryan Singer, with my son who was a total comic book expert. He was about 10 at the time. Henry came, and Bryan showed us all these models and storyboards, and Henry was instructing the director, saying, ‘Oh, you’re going to change this thing right here.’

“I believe it coincided with another project, and I couldn’t do it,” Mortesen offered.

Mortensen also says he was offered two parts in the Zack Snyder Man of Steel movie (I’m guessing General Zod and Jonathan Kent).

“Every once in a while, I get an offer like that. I was offered two different parts in the last Superman movie they made, but I wasn’t available to do that either,” says Mortensen.

Another movie that Viggo Mortensen turned down is Snow White and the Huntsman, with the role going to Chris Hemsworth.

“When they offered it to me, it was a different story and seemed more justified to be called Snow White and the Huntsman. The movie they ended up making should have been called Snow White and the Wicked Witch. The original script was a lot funnier and there was a longer apprenticeship. It was almost like The African Queen a little bit.”