Fans want ‘Letterkenny’s Jared Keeso to play Wolverine for Disney

Yer skeleton was bonded with unbreakable adamantium the other daaaaay…

Jared Keeso as Wolverine? Source: Supplied

Okay, there are a few things you need to get your head around to understand this one.

1. Disney recently bought Fox, which means they now own the film rights to the characters featured in the X-Men movies.
2. The X-Men characters spring from Marvel comics, the happening House of Ideas which begat the wildly successful, record-breaking, pop culture-dominating Marvel Cinematic Universe, and so the smart money is on Disney folding the X-Men into the MCU. Somehow.
3. The smart money is also on a complete reboot of the X-Men, including recasting every role, which means the Boy From Oz, Hugh Jackman, is not going to be playing Wolverine, aka Logan, aka Weapon X, again (and after his brilliant final turn in Logan, nor should he).
4. Wolverine the character is Canadian.
5. And so is Letterkenny creator and star Jared Keeso.

See where we’re going with this?

Well, to be faaaaaair, it’s not just us. There is growing fan support for Keeso to step into cowboy boots so recently vacated by Our Hugh and play the MCU’s iteration of Wolverine. There is, of course, a change.org petition that has attracted 2000-odd signatories, which lays out the argument pretty succinctly:

“Watching a single episode of his show Letterkenny fully establishes how Mr. Keeso would be the perfect casting choice for Wolverine:

• He is actually Canadian
• At 5'10", he’s not overly tall
• Already has years of experience playing a smoking tough guy
• Already in damn good shape

The only actual downside is that you’d need to invest in hair dye. For a company with Disney’s budget, this should not be a huge ordeal.”

To Letterkenny fans, this all makes perfect sense. Keeso’s role as the tough, taciturn, big-hearted but brutal Wayne is not a million miles away from the X-Men’s premiere razor-clawed killing machine and, as much as we love Hugh, he is both too tall (he towers a full foot over Logan’s canonical 5’3”) and too non-Canadian (born in Sydney).

Keeso, though? So Canadian he’s born on Canada Day (July 1), and the fans are absolutely here for him joining the Weapon X program, with a few active threads on Reddit weighing the pros and cons.

Keeso Wolverine Cartoon. Source: Reddit

And meanwhile on Twitter:

 

…the notion certainly has its share of supporters.

Hopefully Kevin Feige and the Marvel gang are listening.

If you’ve never seen Keeso in Letterkenny, seasons 1–4 are now streaming at SBS On Demand: