Wolverine Moments You'll Never See On The Big Screen
Wolverine has been a beloved, instantly recognizable hero ever since his debut in the final page of "The Incredible Hulk" #180 (his first full appearance wasn't until the next issue) in 1974. From his adamantium claws to a signature hairstyle and short fuse personality — all packed into a diminutive size that makes him so much like his namesake — what's there not to like about Wolverine? While Wolverine is mostly known for being a member of the X-Men, he's been a part of numerous other teams in the Marvel Universe as well, including X-Force, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers. For a loner, he sure is into team-building.
Wolverine's enduring popularity meant that it would only be a matter of time before the world got a live action version of the character. And while there was a chance of seeing Bob Hoskins as the character in the late 1980s, it wouldn't be until more than 25 years after Wolverine's comic book debut that Marvel fans would finally see him on the big screen. Hugh Jackman was perfectly cast as the iconic character (despite his height), and he'd go on to play the role for seventeen years.
Now that Marvel Studios once again has the rights to the X-Men, audiences are eager to see the character revived in a more comic-accurate cinematic universe. However, because of the fairly family-friendly approach the MCU has taken with their films, there are several Wolverine moments from the comics that we'll simply never see on the big screen.
The Punisher parking a steamroller on Wolverine
The Punisher is one of the few Marvel characters as tough as Wolverine, and the two have duked it out on plenty of occasions. However, there's one particular bout that stands out as one of their most savage.
Writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson relaunched the Punisher in the early 2000s, and it wasn't long before they pitched him against Wolverine. A storyline beginning in issue #16 kicked off with the two squaring off against each other, and saw the Punisher shoot off Wolverine's face with a shotgun, leaving much of his adamantium-laced skull exposed. It was a grisly sight, even if Wolverine's accelerated healing ability meant he'd soon recover.
Things took an even more gruesome (yet kinda hilarious turn) in the following issue when the Punisher parked a steamroller on his back. Wolverine, obviously, wasn't too thrilled about it, and expressed his hatred for the Punisher by giving the "middle claw." The Punisher knew that with his healing factor, adamantium skeleton, and claws, Wolverine was virtually impossible to kill, much less maim. And because of Wolverine's nearly-unstoppable berserker rage, the pint-sized mutant would just keep coming after him and get in the way of his other mission. So really, trapping the character under some construction machinery was the best option available.
It's easy to see why this moment will never fly on the big screen, at least not in the MCU. Not only because of the violence, but the idea of turning everyone's favorite X-Man into such a joke might be crossing a line for Marvel Studios.
Wolverine clawing his way out of the Hulk
"Old Man Logan" is a favorite among fans when it comes to Wolverine storylines, and is so important that it was the inspiration for the beloved 2017 James Mangold film "Logan."
The story takes place in a dystopian future, where the villains of the Marvel Universe have risen up and taken control of most of the world. By this time, the majority of superheroes have either died or gone into hiding.
Wolverine has given up his days of fighting the good fight, simply goes by Logan, and is living a peaceful life with his wife and two children. They live in a territory run by a family of Hulks (incestuous offspring from Bruce Banner), and when they run out of money to pay off their giant green landlords, Logan embarks on a cross-country trip for a clandestine job with an aged Clint Barton/Hawkeye to raise the necessary funds.
Logan returns his home with the money, only to discover that the Hulk family murdered his — and pops out his claws, something he hasn't done in years. Wolverine hunts down and slaughters the Hulk family, saving Banner for last. When Banner transforms into a horrible version of the Hulk, he easily beats Wolverine, then eats him. However, Wolverine heals from his wounds (inside the Hulk) — and then tears his way out of him!
Not only would such a scene be too violent for the MCU, but seeing Wolverine rip his way out of Mark Ruffalo feels like too much for fans to handle.
Wolverine getting ripped in half
"Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine" was a six-issue miniseries released between 2005 and 2009 (there is a story about why it took years to release six issues of a comic book series). Written by "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof with art by Leinil Francis Yu, the story saw Wolverine being recruited by Nick Fury to hunt down Bruce Banner/Hulk for causing numerous destructive events, believing that he's too dangerous to live.
Wolverine arrives in a small town in Tibet where he finds the Hulk residing, but it turns out that Banner traveled there to seek the Panchen Lama, a wise child monk, and ask for help in curing him of his anger. While Hulk claims that he has his rage under control, he gradually becomes angrier and angrier during the course of their conversation, and finally loses his cool when Wolverine makes a comment about Banner's former lover, Betty Ross. However, the Hulk doesn't just get mad and pound Wolverine into the ground. No, what he does is far more vicious: He rips Wolverine in half. But not only that, the Hulk is about to eat one of Wolverine's legs before he's stopped by the Ultimate version of She-Hulk.
The Hulk in the Ultimate Marvel Universe is surprisingly cool with eating people (as well as in the "Old Man Logan" timeline, too). Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, which seems unlikely to depict cannibalism by a marquee superhero anytime soon.
Magneto ripping the adamantium from his skeleton
At one point in the comics Magneto returned, having been presumed dead from a previous bout with the X-Men. This time, however, he brought with him a group of radical followers called the Acolytes, and together they planned on destroying the human race from their floating base, Avalon.
Crashing the funeral for Illyana Rasputin, sister of Peter Rasputin/Colossus, Magneto offers the X-Men a chance to join him before he wipes everyone out. While most of the X-Men refuse, Colossus sides with Magneto and his cause, having lost faith in Professor X's dream of peaceful coexistence and because of his young sister's death.
Back on Avalon, Magneto creates an electromagnetic pulse that causes massive chaos on Earth. Professor X equips himself with a special exoskeleton made of alien technology that gives him the ability to walk, and assembles a team of X-Men to go to Avalon and prevent Magneto from carrying out his final plan. The X-Men engage Magneto in a fierce battle, with Wolverine giving the Master of Magnetism a near-fatal stab. However, Magneto retaliates in an unbelievably brutal fashion: He uses his magnetic powers to rip the adamantium out of Wolverine's body. But Magneto's actions don't go unpunished, as Professor X uses his psychic powers to wipe out Magneto's mind and leave him in a coma.
Wolverine survives this horrific attack, but that doesn't lessen the mercilessness of it; it doesn't seem like anything you'd see in a PG-13 film.
Wolverine drowning his psychotic son in a puddle
Wolverine has had a much longer and more storied life than most people realize. At some point in his life before joining the X-Men, Wolverine was married to a woman named Itsu and they lived together in Jasmine Falls, Japan. In 1946, Itsu was pregnant with their son, but she was killed before his birth, the baby torn from her dying body. Because of the healing factor he inherited from his father, the baby survived and grew up to become Daken. Believing that Wolverine was responsible for his mother's death (mistakenly), Daken spent much of his own days harboring a deep hatred towards his father, and fought him on numerous occasions.
However, their feud seemed to come to a close in Rick Remender's "Uncanny X-Force" series, where Daken forms a new Brotherhood of Mutants featuring Sabretooth, Mystique, Shadow King, Skinless Man, the Omega Clan, and the Blob from the "Age of Apocalypse" timeline. The Brotherhood commits a range of attacks, culminating in a showdown between Wolverine and Daken. To this point, Wolverine had been trying to rehabilitate Daken, but after receiving a message from a future version of himself that Daken will kill the students at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, Wolverine decides to drown his son in a puddle to prevent the atrocity.
There's almost no way that you can tell a story about a man who has to kill his own son and make it palatable for audiences expecting another crowd-pleaser from Marvel Studios, so don't expect to see this moment on the big screen.
Wolverine killing an innocent teenager to save lives
The Ultimate Marvel Universe gave us darker, edgier versions of beloved characters, and their stories followed suit. Case in point: "Ultimate X-Men" #41.
This issue tells the story of a seemingly average teenage boy going about his ordinary life. However, as he rushes to school, what he doesn't notice is that the people he passes by start to combust and burn up. Things only get worse for him at school when he accidentally causes his classmates and even girlfriend to burst into flames. So, right off the bat, this is a story that wouldn't make a great basis for an MCU movie.
This boy has one of the most destructive mutant powers ever, and he has no control over it. Driven by shame and fear, he goes to hide in a cave. It's here that Wolverine arrives and hands him a beer, explaining that he caused the deaths of hundreds of people in his town. Wolverine reassures him that the real story will be swept under the rug and explained as a chemical leak. The boy is encouraged to finish his beer, and Wolverine emerges from the cave, alone.
This painfully thoughtful story is a stark reminder of just how dangerous new mutants can be. While this was a recurring theme in Fox's "X-Men" films, they rarely got this dark, and it's safe to assume future installments won't either.
Wolverine attempting to kill Cyclops so he can get with Jean Grey
Here's another example of how "Ultimate X-Men" took the classic mutant heroes to some pretty dark and twisted places: The series actually saw Wolverine intentionally try to kill Cyclops so he could have Jean Grey all to himself.
Just like in the main Marvel comics universe, the "Ultimate" versions of Wolverine and Cyclops have a strong rivalry that centers around their affection for Jean Grey. However, their rivalry is even more violent in the "Ultimate" universe, as seen when Cyclops uses his eye beams to blast Wolverine away for constantly taunting him. This causes Wolverine to fly into a rage and lunge for Cyclops before Professor X breaks up the fight. He then sends the two of them on a mission to the Savage Land in an attempt to force them to settle out their differences by working together as a team.
While in the Savage Land, Cyclops has a nasty fall and ends up hanging from a steep cliffside. Wolverine reaches out to grab Cyclops, but then decides to let him fall to his apparent death. Wolverine then heads back to the X-Mansion to break the tragic news to everyone, and heads straight to consoling Jean for the loss of her boyfriend.
Wolverine has killed plenty of people throughout his life, but killing a guy — especially someone as heroic as Cyclops — simply because he wanted to take his girl is really cold.
Wolverine getting nuked and regenerating
"Captain America: Civil War" had its share of hard-hitting moments, but the storyline from the comics that the film was based on hit even harder. The comics crossover event kicked off with the New Warriors taking on a group of villains in Stamford, Connecticut. However, one of the villains, Nitro, causes a massive explosion during the fight that kills more than 600 citizens (including 60 children at a school nearby) in the town.
While the heroes of the Marvel Universe debate whether they should register themselves with the government to prevent other such disasters, Wolverine goes off on his own mission to hunt down Nitro for what he did. Wolverine tracks Nitro down and confronts him, but Nitro creates another massive explosion, incinerating Wolverine until there's nothing left of him but his adamantium-laced skeleton. Of course, Wolverine has that pesky regenerative power, which means he'll be able to completely heal himself, but it's no less a grisly sight seeing his flesh, organs, muscles, and skin regrow in such painful detail.
To be fair, we sort of saw a version of this scene play out in 2013's "The Wolverine," during the opening sequence when he is caught in the blast of a nuclear bomb. But audiences weren't subjected to the sight of Wolverine completely regenerating virtually his entire body from scratch. If Marvel Studios is willing to cut out some of the more devastating scenes from source material when adapting it to the screen, it's a safe bet that they're in no hurry to depict Wolverine getting nuked.
Wolverine slaughtering the X-Men
If you thought Wolverine carving his way out of the Hulk was the only gruesome part of "Old Man Logan" that feels unfilmable, think again.
During their cross-country trip together, Logan and Clint Barton make a pit stop at a bar to have some beers. It's here that Clint — being one of the only heroes still alive who knows about his past — goads Logan into telling him why he gave up being Wolverine. Logan then reluctantly shares his story.
Years ago at the X-Mansion, a group of supervillains launched an assault on the X-Men's headquarters. Wolverine took on the villains himself, slashing and tearing them with wild abandon, all the while wondering where his teammates were. As Wolverine stood over the bodies of his attackers, Mysterio appeared and revealed the people he had just sliced to pieces were in fact X-Men. Mysterio had used his powers of illusion to trick Wolverine into slaughtering his teammates. Wolverine, distraught over the realization that he just tore apart the only family he'd ever known, wanders off the property to a set of train tracks, lays down on them, and lets a train run over his head, symbolically ending his time as Wolverine.
Parts of this were incorporated into "Logan"; however, it was changed to make Professor X the one responsible for killing the X-Men. Also, the act was never shown on screen, probably because it would've been too graphic even for that R-rated film.
Wolverine decapitating Sabretooth
The rivalry between Wolverine and Sabretooth goes back decades, and because of their comparable berserker personalities, there's always plenty of bloodshed when the two meet. While they have a lot in common (they were even friends once, back during their Team X days), one of the prime differences between them is that Wolverine always tried to contain the animal within himself, whereas Sabretooth gave in to the animal inside, never caring for the collateral damage.
When Sabretooth killed Feral (a member of X-Force), Wolverine decided that he'd finally gone too far. Wolverine concluded that, because of Sabretooth's healing factor, the only thing that could truly end him was the Murasama Blade, a sword legendary for its ability to inhibit a mutant's regenerative power. He had given it to Cyclops in case he ever became too wild and dangerous to contain.
So, Wolverine tracks down Sabretooth in the woods, and when Sabretooth pounces on him, Wolverine slices off his arm. Sabretooth tries reattaching his arm, believing that his healing power would take care of it, but Wolverine tells him it's hopeless. When Wolverine's one last plea for humanity is rejected by Sabretooth, Wolverine slices his head off, leaving the remains in the woods to feed the wolves. That definitely feels a bit bleak for the House of Mouse.