Keeping Wolverine Canadian Made X-Men Movie Writer Proud

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Keeping Wolverine a Canadian made X-Men movie writer David Hayter proud after the studio behind the film asked for the character to be American. Development on the 2000 superhero film had lingered in development hell for nearly 20 years, first beginning at Orion Pictures with James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow in talks at various points before 20th Century Fox acquired the rights and underwent multiple treatments from writers including Andrew Kevin Walker, John Logan, Joss Whedon and Michael Chabon. X-Men would eventually move forward with Bryan Singer at the helm and a script primarily from Hayter with rewrites contributed by Ed Solomon, Singer, Christopher McQuarrie and Tom DeSanto, the latter of whom would retain a co-story credit.

 

X-Men hit the scene to rave reviews from critics and audiences alike for its performances, story and themes and was a box office smash, grossing over $296.3 million against its $75 million budget. In addition to spawning its own franchise, this success would contribute to the reemergence of superhero films alongside Wesley Snipes' Blade trilogy and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and was the career launchpad for much of its cast, namely Hugh Jackman in his Hollywood debut as Wolverine. Though the adaptation of the character was largely well-received, the studio behind X-Men originally had other ideas for bringing him to the screen for the first time.

 

David Hayter recently caught up with Inverse for an oral history of Wolverine and the making of the X-Men movie. When reflecting on writing the fan-favorite superhero, Hayter recalled having been called into the studio to discuss changing his roots to American, but that he stood his ground to keep Wolverine Canadian, which made him proud. See what Hayter shared below:

 

"By the way, one of the proudest moments I had on the first film was when I was called into one of the producers' offices and they said to me, 'Hey, can we just find Wolverine in Alaska instead of Alberta and make him American?' I knew this was coming, but I was ready. I told them, 'Everybody knows that Wolverine is Canadian and the fans will kill you.' I had no power in this situation, but I stood my ground and he stayed Canadian. I don't like to call myself a true Canadian hero, though. I'll leave that to others."

 

As Hayter notes, Wolverine's comic book roots saw him born in Alberta, Canada in the late 19th century and lived much of his early life in various regions of the country, including a mining colony in the Yukon and being enlisted by the Canadian military for World War I. Though it's unclear what stage of development the X-Men movie was at when Hayter was asked to change the character's home country, it is interesting to note the film's adaptation of the character still ran into some controversy amongst comic book fans. After originally casting Dougray Scott in the role, Hugh Jackman would ultimately be cast for Wolverine in X-Men, which drew criticism for the difference in height as the Australian actor stands a full foot taller than his comic book counterpart.

 

Much like the initial backlash towards Michael Keaton's casting as Batman, comic book fans would take back their critiques as Jackman's Wolverine in the X-Men movie would receive rave reviews. Jackman would carry the role on through every film in Fox's X-Men franchise, save for its final two installments Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants, and previously held the Guinness World Record for the longest career as a live-action Marvel superhero before being surpassed by Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe with Spider-Man: No Way Home. Audiences can revisit all of Jackman's turns as Wolverine streaming on Disney+ now.

 

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