By Nathan Kamal | 8 seconds ago
We live in an age of technological miracles, in which we can communicate with strangers across the globe while insulting their video gaming prowess or see Sigourney Weaver turn into a blue alien teenage surfer. In a similar story to the latter, fans have put together a new video that allows us to see what The Boys star Karl Urban might look like if he were cast as Marvel’s new Wolverine. Check it out here:
According to CBR, fans have used deepfake technology to splice Karl Urban into 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine as a demonstration of what we could get with him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. First things first, we question the exact decision-making behind using X-Men Origins: Wolverine as the demo reel here, as it is generally considering not only the worst Wolverine movie, but the worst X-Men franchise movie, period. We are sure some arguments could be made for the instantly forgotten New Mutantsbut X-Men Origins: Wolverine was so bad it made Ryan Reynolds demand a re-do as Deadpool. That’s pretty bad.
On the other hand, the video of Karl Urban as Logan/Wolverine is actually pretty impressive. Deepfake technology essentially uses a neural network called an autoencoder to restructure an image or video around AI learning techniques; Basically, with the nearly unlimited and terrifying possibilities of artificial intelligence, we are using it to replace Hugh Jackman with Karl Urban as Wolverine. We are not throwing shade at the creators of the video, who have done an impressive and nearly seamless job here (though Karl Urban looks oddly baby-faced as Wolverine), and it seems entirely likely that the casting agents at Marvel Studios might take notice .
Karl Urban himself has said he is flattered at the idea he might be considered to take over the role of Wolverine from Hugh Jackman, whose record longevity as the character was only recently broken. However, Karl Urban has brought up some very understandable reasons why he might not be cast as Wolverine in the MCU. For one, he feels that he is already about to age out of the character (or more specifically, out of the ability to do the requisite stunts for the long-lived mutant), being only three years younger than Hugh Jackman. For another, Karl Urban says he has not been approached by Marvel Studios to play Wolverine. We would like to think that Karl Urban would not lie to us about this.
Fans have also been pushing for The Boys co-star Antony Starr as the new Wolverine, even mocking up art with the Homelander actor in character. Same as Karl Urban, Starr has said Marvel has not been reaching out to him, so this may just be yet another Wolverine pipedream. However, as we previously reported and confirmed, Rocketman actor Taron Egerton apparently has actually been in touch with Marvel about playing Wolverine at some point in the future. While Egerton has not been locked down as everyone’s favorite berserker Canadian mutant, there is a lot better chances of seeing him with the sideburns than Karl Urban or Antony Starr.
