Deadpool & Wolverine BTS Photos Reveal Short Logan Wasn’t Played By Hugh Jackman

Actor Hugh Jackman is 6’2″ tall. While many agreed that he was perfectly cast as the X-Man Wolverine when he first started playing the role in 2000 — he encapsulated the facial expressions and feral attitudes of the comic book character — some noted that he was too tall. A little bit of research reveals that Wolverine is actually a short fellow, standing at a below-average 5’3″ and weighing 195 pounds. Just like his animal namesake, Wolverine contains a lot of muscle in a small package. These stats, by the way, come from the Series 1 Marvel Universe trading cards released by Impel in 1990. The same stats were passed into all the subsequent trading cards. Did you know that Wolverine has a Strength level of 2, an Intelligence rating of 3, and a Fighting Ability rating of 7?

For 10 movies, however, comics readers had to face a towering 6’2″ Wolverine and just sort of accept that the character had mysteriously grown almost a full foot since his appearance on the page.

It wasn’t until Shawn Levy’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” that a Wolverine of proper height would appear. During an early multidimensional montage, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) meets a series of Wolverines from different parallel universes, most of them played by Jackman. In one universe, Deadpool finds a Wolverine in a bar. When the latter hops off his barstool, Deadpool sees that he’s physically much shorter than expected. It’s not explained why, but Deadpool doesn’t elect to kidnap this Wolverine.

This Wolverine was played by professional bodybuilder Luke Bennett, who recently took to Instagram to show off his full Wolverine getup behind the scenes. Bennett’s face and voice were digitally replaced by Jackman’s, but the 4’11” actor is being praised by fans for finally resembling the Wolverine they always read about.

Bennett, curiously, was not credited for his appearance in “Deadpool & Wolverine” despite being a prominent body double who, as seen in the photo above, had his hair and sideburns teased out in a Wolverine fashion. Bennett has also appeared in Robert Eggers’ “The Northman,” played the character Bobby in “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” and appeared in the third season of “The Witcher.”

The actor was thrilled to appear as Wolverine, even if it was for a cameo where his face was digitally replaced. As he posted on his Instagram account:

“This is to everyone that told me when I was growing up, being part of the X-Men wasn’t a real job … What a wild f***ing ride ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ is! Grateful to be a ‘small’ part of this amazing film and be able to help bring comic book accurate Wolverine to the big screen! The biggest thank you to [Levy, Reynolds, and Jackman] for this opportunity — the patience, and being the legends that you are! You guys made me feel right at home on set and I can’t thank you guys enough! (I almost died of nerves).”

Bennett’s physique is hugely impressive, and he, like many superhero actors before him, had to work out for weeks to get his musculature to match the bulky comic book characters seen in Marvel Comics drawings. Bennett’s brother runs a gym called Mangi-Strength, so Bennett had a place to work out with a watchful coach.

Bennett continued: 

“I worked my fingers to the bone trying to bring my best shape for the film, eating and training like a madman! That’s all down to my brother keeping me in the best shape as always, a lot of the credit has to go to you! I really hope you laughed as hard as me and had the same excitement I had seeing little Wolverine on screen!” 

Bennett’s look was taken from concept art by Ryan Meinerding, who posted his concept art for “short king Wolverine” on his Instagram. Fans have responded very positively, with some of them claiming that Bennett should take over the role from Jackman and others noting that a shorter Wolverine was always more appropriate than a tall one. One fan even called him “the real Wolverine.” Others felt it tragic that Bennett’s handsome face was covered up with digital trickery. Given that Jackman is also rather handsome, however, I’m sure Bennett didn’t mind. 

There’s also no reason to assume that a relatively unknown actor like Bennett wouldn’t step into the role at some point. Recall that Jackman wasn’t a well-known movie star when he assumed the role of Wolverine in Bryan Singer’s “X-Men” almost 25 years ago.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is currently playing in theaters.