|alt=Atop a stage are three man in black clothing, Liev Schreiber wearing a gray jacket and black pants, and Lynn Collins, wearing a yellow dress, hugging will.i.am, who is in black clothing. In the background is a billboard reading "X-Men Origins Wolverine: World Premiere – Tempe, Arizona. Colored paper flies through the stage. •
Hugh Jackman as
Logan / Wolverine: A Canadian mutant and future
X-Men member. Jackman became producer of the film via his company
Seed Productions and earned $25 million for the film. Jackman underwent a high intensity weight training regimen to improve his physique for the role. He altered the program to shock his body into change and also performed
cardiovascular workouts. Jackman noted that no digital touches were applied to his physique in a shot of him rising from the tank within which Wolverine has his bones infused with
adamantium.
Kodi Smit-McPhee was originally cast in the role, when filming was originally beginning in December 2007, but he opted out to film
The Road. McPhee later played
Nightcrawler in
X-Men: Apocalypse and
Dark Phoenix. •
Liev Schreiber as
Victor Creed: Logan's mutant
half-brother and fellow soldier, who becomes his nemesis
Sabretooth. Jackman and Hood compared Wolverine and Victor's relationship to the
Borg–McEnroe rivalry in the world of tennis, in that they are enemies but they can't live without each other. Creed represents the pure animal and embodies the darker side of Wolverine's character, the aspect Wolverine hates about himself. These characters are two sides to the same coin.
Tyler Mane, who played him in
X-Men, had hoped to reprise the role. Jackman worked with Schreiber before, in the 2001 romantic comedy
Kate & Leopold and described him as having a competitive streak necessary to portray Creed. They egged each other on set to perform more and more stunts. Schreiber put on of muscle for the part, •
Michael-James Olsen as young Victor •
Danny Huston as
William Stryker: Schreiber was originally in negotiations for the part, Huston liked the complex Major Stryker, who "both loves and hates mutants because his son was a mutant and drove his wife to suicide. So he understands what they're going through, but despises their destructive force." He compared the character to a
racehorse breeder, who rears his mutant experiments like children but abandons them when something goes wrong. His son is shown to be frozen at the Weapon X facility and the reason Stryker starts the Weapon XI program. When filming a fight, he scarred his knuckles after accidentally punching and breaking the camera.
Quinton Jackson was offered the role but turned it down. •
Lynn Collins as
Kayla Silverfox: Wolverine's Native American (Blackfoot/Niitsítapi) mutant love interest and pawn of Stryker. She has the powers of tactile hypnosis which allows her to control or convince others to do the things she wants them to by physical touch.
Michelle Monaghan turned down the role because of scheduling conflicts, despite her enthusiasm to work with Jackman. In an article by
Indian Country Today, the casting of Lynn Collins as the Blackfoot/Niitsítapi comics character Silver Fox was cited as part of a return by Hollywood to an era of 'redface', a very old trend of casting non-Indigenous people as Indigenous. •
Kevin Durand as
Fred Dukes: A mutant with a nearly-indestructible layer of skin. In the film's early sequences, he is a formidable fighting man, but years later, due to a poor diet, has gained an enormous amount of weight and trains as a boxer to lose weight. Logan taunts Dukes about the whereabouts of Stryker and when he calls him "Bub", Dukes mishears this as "blob" and starts fighting him. The suit went through six months of modifications, and had a tubing system inside to cool Durand down with ice water.
David Harbour auditioned for the role, but was turned down for being too fat at the time. •
Dominic Monaghan as
Chris Bradley: A mutant who can manipulate electricity and electronic objects. It was originally reported that Monaghan was going to play
Barnell Bohusk / Beak. •
Taylor Kitsch as
Remy LeBeau: A
Cajun thief who has the ability to convert the
potential energy of any object he touches into
kinetic energy, forcing it to explode. The size of the object determines the magnitude of the resulting explosion.
Josh Holloway was initially cast in the role but was dropped after the studio wanted someone ten years younger for the role.
Chris Hemsworth came close to playing the role, but lost out to Kitsch. •
Daniel Henney as
Agent Zero: A mutant member of the Weapon X program and a superhumanly accurate assassin with enhanced agility and reflexes, expert tracking abilities and lethal sniper skills. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner says on the DVD commentary that Agent Zero has no scent which makes him difficult for Logan to sense. He described the film as more realistic and cruder than the
X-Men trilogy. •
Ryan Reynolds as
Wade Wilson: A wisecracking mercenary with lethal swordsmanship skill and peak athleticism who is later transformed into Weapon XI. Initially believed to have been killed by Victor, Weapon XI is a genetically altered mutant killer. He has powers taken from other mutants killed or kidnapped in the film, including the power to shoot concussive energy beams from his eyes, healing factor, teleportation, and retractable blades in his arms. He is referred to by Stryker as "the pool, the mutant killer: Deadpool" because the compatible powers of the other mutants have been 'pooled' together into one being. This interpretation of Deadpool is lacking his traditional red suit and mask, and also includes a mouth sewn shut. Reynolds portrays Weapon XI for close-ups, standing shots, and simple stunts while
Scott Adkins is used for the more complicated and dangerous stunts. Originally, Reynolds was only going to cameo as Wilson but the role grew after he was cast. Reynolds played a different version of the character in
Deadpool,
Deadpool 2, and
Deadpool & Wolverine. Additionally,
Tim Pocock portrays the young
Scott Summers.
Max Cullen and
Julia Blake portrayed Travis Hudson and Heather Hudson, an elderly couple who take care of Wolverine after his adamantium bonding. The Hudsons are heavily adapted from the comics'
James MacDonald and
Heather Hudson.
Tahyna Tozzi portrays Emma, a mutant with the power to turn her skin into diamond, who in the film is Silverfox's sister. The film depiction of Emma was originally intended to be
Emma Frost. However it was noted that she does not exhibit the character's traditional telepathic abilities. It is later revealed by Bryan Singer that this character is actually not Emma Frost, but instead a mutant with similar abilities.
January Jones portrayed the actual Emma Frost in the next film,
X-Men: First Class. Wolverine's parents also appeared in the film;
Aaron Jeffery portrayed
Thomas Logan while Alice Parkinson portrayed Elizabeth Howlett and
Peter O'Brien appeared as John Howlett. The film includes numerous
cameo appearances of younger versions of characters from the previous films, including
Jason Stryker (William's lobotomized telepathic son whom he keeps in cryogenic suspension). There was a cameo for a young
Storm, which can be seen in the trailer, but it was removed from the released film.
Patrick Stewart (digitally rejuvenated) also makes an uncredited cameo as a younger
Professor Charles Xavier who appeared to have not yet lost the use of his legs.
Asher Keddie played Dr. Carol Frost. Poker player
Daniel Negreanu has a cameo.
Phil Hellmuth wanted to join him but was unable because he committed to an event in Toronto.
X-Men co-creator
Stan Lee said he would cameo, but Lee ended up not appearing in the film as he could not attend filming in Australia. ==Production==