Film Trivia Fact Check: Danzig ain’t no goddamn Wolverine

The internet is filled with facts, both true and otherwise. In Film Trivia Fact Check, we’ll browse the depths of the web’s most user-generated trivia boards and wikis and put them under the microscope. How true are the IMDb Trivia pages? You want the truth? Can you handle the truth? We’re about to find out.

Claim: “Musician Glenn Danzig, whose muscular physique and height (5’4″), almost perfectly matched the Wolverine character portrayed in the comic books, was interviewed for the role of Wolverine. A common myth has it, that he was offered a part in the movie, but this confusion occurs, largely because Danzig was actually offered the role approximately ten years earlier, when Carolco held the rights to an X-Men movie, and was considering a low-budget production. However, due to the high-budget and status of the 2000 production, as well as Danzig’s age and relative lack of acting experience, and the requirement that the Wolverine actor be signed to a multi-picture deal spanning several years, it is highly unlikely that Danzig could have won the role in this film. Regardless, a scheduling conflict prevented him from any subsequent pursuit of the role.” [Source: IMDB.com]

Rating: Mostly true.

Context: Glenn Danzig is a rock ’n’ roll icon. His bands, The Misfits, Samhain, and his self-titled blues-metal outfit Danzig, have left an indelible impact on punk, heavy metal, and all forms of electric guitar-based evil. Danzig’s signature baritone and peerless design sense have made him a celebrity, even to people who have never heard his music. Not to mention, his book collection is second to none. But Danzig is also a short king. Celebheights.com puts the Misfits singer at 5’4,” meaning if you imagine the Lodi, New Jersey native hunched over, with a Tech Deck half-pipe of hair running atop his mutton-chopped, cigar-chomping face, he kind of resembles Wolverine.

Stunt casting isn’t abnormal in superhero movies. Superhero movies began by casting Marlon Brando for an above-the-title cameo. In the mid-90s, Shaq starred in Steel, and Iggy Pop popped up in The Crow: City Of Angels. By 2009, will.i.am was Wolverine’s John Wraith, and more recently, Kevin Feige brought Harry Styles into the MCU for, as of this writing, no reason. Still, the idea of Danzig as Wolverine has been a fixture of comic book fan-casting for 24 years, beginning in the pages of Wizard magazine.

Throughout the magazine’s run, Wizard ran a regular feature called “Casting Call,” in which the staff (or Kevin Smith) offer their dream line-up for upcoming superhero movies. The January 1995 issue focused on the still unproduced X-Men movie and devoted a Casting Call to Marvel’s uncanny superhero team. Nothing was out of bounds in this column, allowing “A Bunch of Wizard Staffers” to cast Nicole Kidman as Rogue, Jean-Claude Van Damme as Gambit, and—get this—Patrick Stewart as Professor X. As for good ol’ Weapon X, Wizard suggested, “Wolverine, the most unshaven hero in comics, would be brought to life by brooding rock star Glenn Danzig.” Wizard’s timing couldn’t have been better.

In 1994, Danzig had never been hotter. His band had just released a remix of their most famous song, “Mother,” bringing the band to new heights. Thanks to a positive review (and frequent airplay) on Beavis And Butt-Head, “Mother ’93″ cracked the Billboard Hot 100. “This song is so good, they had to do it twice,” raves Butt-Head. Someone at Fox was listening.

Five months after Wizard’s fan-casting left teen boys salivating for an extra-evil Wolverine, Danzig took a meeting with 20th Century Fox. Really.

In May 1995, rock journalist Gary Graff reported, “[Danzig’s] popularity led 20th Century-Fox to woo Danzig to play Wolverine in an upcoming film based on the X-Men comic book, though he’s still waiting for the script to be finished.”

Of course, Danzig never ended up playing Logan. A little more than a year after Danzig’s meeting, Bryan Singer formally signed on to direct and brought his own ideas on Wolverine. Dougray Scott landed the part but had to drop out due to obligations on Mission: Impossible II. Singer moved on to Russell Crowe, who suggested Jackman. The rest is history.

But think how close we came to Deadpool & Danzig. We can’t imagine he’d appreciate all the pegging material, though. In 2011, Danzig broke his silence on how his Wolverine would have differed from Jackman’s beloved take.

“It wouldn’t have been as gay,” Danzig told LA Weekly in 2011, proving he probably wasn’t the right actor for an allegory about LGBTQ+ civil rights. “I’m glad I didn’t do it. It was terrible.”