Viggo Mortensen has said he turned down the chance to play Wolverine in the X-Men franchise as he didn't want to commit to "endless" sequels.
The 62-year-old American-Danish actor admits he refused to take on the iconic role in Byran Singer's 2000 blockbuster, which ultimately went to Hugh Jackman, because he was "nervous" about paying the same character "over and over".
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Viggo said: "The thing that bothered me at the time was just the commitment of endless movies of the same character over and over. I was nervous about that."
Mortensen recalled how he took his young son Henry to a meeting with Singer, where the comic book fan pointed out that some elements of the character weren't up to standard with the Marvel comics.
"And also there were some things, I mean they straightened most of them out, but I did take Henry to the meeting I had with the director as my sort of good luck charm and guide.
"In the back of my mind I was thinking he could learn something too, because I did let Henry read the script and he goes, 'This is wrong, that's now how it is.'"
He continued: "We walked out of there and Henry asks if (Singer) will change the things he told him about and I say, 'I don't think so.'
"I'm not going to do it anyway, because I'm not sure I want to be doing this for year, and then a couple of years later I'm doing three Lord of the Rings so who knows."
Hugh Jackman went on to play Wolverine, playing the character 10 times in total in X-Men sequels, spin-offs and in a big screen cameo.
