Daniel Radcliffe on why he wouldn't play Wolverine, defends huge franchise movies (exclusive)

Earlier this year, Daniel Radcliffe had to clear up reports that he would be playing Wolverine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The actor was linked to the X-Men character after he made a joke in a Wired interview about being cast and the Internet mistakenly took seriously.

Since then he has confirmed that he is not playing the role Hugh Jackman made famous and explained to Yahoo Movies UK why he wouldn’t want to.

“There was that whole thing where I made, what I thought was, an obvious joke about, I think, I said that [I'd be] Wolverine if he'd been shrunk in a hot wash, and then people thought that that was serious,” Radcliffe recalled.

“I got onto set on my next job in Australia and people were like, 'so you're playing Wolverine? That's awesome man!' and I was like no, no, no, that was a joke.

“Most of the films that I love I don't think I would want to see remade,” he added. “and I certainly don't think that I would want to be in the remakes of them.”

Read more: Daniel Radcliffe on why he turns down action movies

However, the actor does admit that he might be suited for the role.

“That's the thing in the comics,” Radcliffe said, “Wolverine is meant to be super short.”

In recent years he’s become more synonymous with the indie filmmaking scene with roles in niche flicks like Swiss Army Man, Kill Your Darlings, Holes and Imperium, though in Playmobil: The Movie he voices an overconfident spy called Rex Dasher.

And while he’s not itching to star in an X-Men movie, he does appreciate the work that goes into making big franchise movies - he did lead all eight of the Harry Potter movies, after all.

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“I think there is a place for appreciating films that know what they are and are not necessarily trying to be high art all the time,” Radcliffe says.

“There is a myth that goes around that there is much more of an artistic struggle, somehow, to make an indie movie,” he explains, “than it is to make a big movie, like it's not easy to make a huge franchise movie.”

“What they're doing on those huge Marvel films are a huge amount of work.”

Playmobil: The Movie is in cinemas this Friday, 9 August. Watch a clip featuring Daniel Radcliffe as Rex Dasher below.