X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Cast

Cast

• Hugh Jackman as James Howlett / Logan / Wolverine: The mutant and future X-Men member. Jackman, who played Wolverine in the previous films, has also become 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 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.
  • Troye Sivan as Young James: Casting directors cast Sivan as the young Wolverine after seeing him sing at the Channel Seven Perth Telethon, and he was accepted after sending in an audition tape. 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.
• Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed: Logan's half-brother and fellow soldier. Jackman and Hood compared Wolverine and Sabretooth's relationship to the Borg–McEnroe rivalry in the world of tennis: Victor hates him because he loved and needed his brother, but is too proud to admit he needs him back. 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 Sabretooth. They egged each other on on set to perform more and more stunts. Schreiber put on 40 lb (18 kg) of muscle for the part, and described Sabretooth as the most monstrous role he ever played. As a child, he loved the Wolverine comics because of their unique "urban sensibility". Schreiber had studied to be a fight choreographer and wanted to be a dancer like Jackman, so he enjoyed working out their fight scenes.
  • Michael James Olsen as Young Victor
• Danny Huston as William Stryker: Huston was originally in negotiations for the part, while Brian Cox, who played the character in X2, wanted to reprise the role. He believed computer-generated imagery, similar to the program applied to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in the opening flashback of X-Men: The Last Stand, would allow him to appear as the younger Stryker. Huston liked the complex 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.
• Lynn Collins as Kayla Silverfox: Wolverine's native-American (Blackfoot/Niitsítapi) love interest and pawn of Stryker. She has the powers of tactile telepathy/hypnosis. However, Victor is resistant/immune to telepathy. Describing her role, Collins said "I had to play off all the guys and their testosterone-heavy abilities. But I learned that the female powers of persuasion easily trump fangs and knives and guns."Michelle Monaghan turned down the role because of scheduling conflicts, despite her enthusiasm to work with Jackman.
• Taylor Kitsch as Remy LeBeau / Gambit: 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. He is also skilled in the use of a staff, and happens to be very agile. Due to the nature of his power, he displays supernatural durability, being able to take Wolverine's elbow to his face and return to fight moments later. When asked about his thoughts on the character, Kitsch had said, "I knew of him, but I didn't know the following he had. I'm sure I'm still going to be exposed to that. I love the character, I love the powers, and I love what they did with him. I didn't know that much, but in my experience, it was a blessing to go in and create my take on him. I'm excited for it, to say the least."
• will.i.am as John Wraith: A teleporting mutant. It is will.i.am's major live-action film debut. Although he initially did not get on with the casting director, he got the role because he wanted to play a mutant with the same power as Nightcrawler. He enrolled in boot camp to get into shape for the part. When filming a fight, he scarred his knuckles after accidentally punching and breaking the camera.
• Kevin Durand as Fred J. Dukes / The Blob: 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. A fan of the X-Men movies, Durand contacted the producers for a role as soon as news of a new film came out. The suit went through six months of modifications, and had a tubing system inside to cool Durand down with ice water.
• Dominic Monaghan as Chris Bradley: A mutant who can manipulate electricity and a technopath. It was originally reported that Monaghan was going to play Barnell Bohusk / Beak.
• Daniel Henney as Agent Zero: A member of the Weapon X program and an expert tracker with lethal sniper skills. An X-Men fan, Henney liked the role of a villain because "there are no restrictions playing it, allowing you freely to express it, so you can act how you want to". 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 athleticism, who later becomes Deadpool. Reynolds had been interested in playing the character in his own film since 2003. Originally, Reynolds was only going to cameo as Wilson but the role grew after he was cast. Reynolds did sword-training for the character, and also worked out to get his physique comparable to Jackman's.
  • Scott Adkins as Weapon XI / Deadpool: Weapon XI is the final antagonist of the film, having been genetically altered to be the ultimate mutant killer. He has powers taken from other mutants killed or kidnapped in the film, as well as retractable blades in his arms. Ryan Reynolds portrays Weapon XI for close-ups, standing shots, and simple stunts while Scott Adkins is used for the more complicated and dangerous stunt work.
• Tim Pocock as Scott Summers: A mutant capable of emitting powerful beams of energy from his eyes, who will later become Cyclops, leader of the X-Men. He is shown as a Weapon X captive as he is caught by Victor Creed. Pocock is a debuting screen actor who previously worked with Opera Australia, who decided to play the character as "his own" instead of following James Marsden's performance in the X-Men trilogy, feeling that "he's a very different human being at that point in time. He's a teenager. What teenager is the same when they're 30 years old?" Pocock also described Wolverine as being Cyclops' "big transition moment", with the character going from a troubled teenager to a leader throughout the course of the film.
• Max Cullen and Julia Blake as 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.
• Peter O'Brien as John Howlett: James' alleged father, shot by Thomas Logan in the film's opening.
• Aaron Jeffery as Thomas Logan: Victor and James' real father, who ends up getting killed by James.
• Alice Parkinson as Elizabeth Howlett: James' mother.
• Tahyna Tozzi as Kayla's Sister / Emma: A mutant with the power to turn her skin into diamond, who in the film is Silverfox's sister. X2 writer Dan Harris said that Sigourney Weaver would have played Emma Frost in X-Men: The Last Stand if Bryan Singer had stayed on to direct. The film depiction of Emma does not exhibit the character's traditional telepathic abilities.

The film includes numerous cameo appearances of younger versions of characters from the previous films, including Jason Stryker (William Stryker'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. A digitally rejuvenated Patrick Stewart also makes an uncredited cameo as a younger Charles Xavier who had 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 ended up not appearing in the film.