It's only a matter of time before we see Wolverine make his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and everyone has their own opinions on who would be the best actor for the role. Certainly, following Hugh Jackman won't be easy, but fans are nevertheless intrigued to see the X-Men characters finally back on the big screen after the previous movie series ended. If you were to ask Matthew Vaughn, who directed X-Men: First Class along with Kick-Ass and the Kingsman movies, at least three solid names come to mind.

The reveal comes from ComicBook.com, who asked Vaughn directly who he would've cast in the role. It's an interesting question, as X-Men: First Class featured many younger versions of previously-established characters, but Wolverine was notably not among them with Hugh Jackman reprising the role. Perhaps if Vaughn were to recast the role somewhere around that time, he might have gone with Venom star Tom Hardy. As the director explains, however, he's now more likely to pick Taron Egerton or Aaron Taylor-Johnson; the former appeared in the Kingsman movies while the latter is in Vaughn's new prequel The King's Man.

"Well, he's got older now, but I would say Tom Hardy would have...been awesome. I think Taron [Egerton] could do it in his sleep. Aaron Taylor-Johnson could do it as well. I mean, I think Aaron or Taron would be my first two choices [who] could do it really well."

X-Men fans will just have to continue to wonder who might be playing Wolverine, because there's no apparent rush at Marvel Studios to recast the character. Earlier this year, Kevin Feige confirmed that there were no imminent plans to cast the new Logan. There is certainly a lot of fan interest in seeing the X-Men in the MCU, but we may just need to be more patient. Marvel already has so many big projects up on the board as part of their overall plan for Phase Four of the MCU, and it might be hard to squeeze in something as huge as the X-Men franchise.

Another popular candidate fans have rooted for to play Wolverine is The Punisher star Jon Bernthal. In October, Bernthal responded to those fans, and while he suggested he'd be open to playing anyone if he was moved by the screenplay, he insisted that "Frank Castle is in my bones." Given what's been happening in the MCU lately, Bernthal's potential return as the Punisher seems like a very real possibility, though he has said he's only interested in reprising that role if Disney won't be toning down the R-rated character.

Many other fans are more than happy to see Hugh Jackman revisiting the role of Logan. However, Jackman apparently has no desire to play Logan again, having left that character behind him, but the inclusion of the multiverse in new Marvel movies means that the possibility is always there for Jackman's Logan to appear in one way or another. Ryan Reynolds has long been campaigning to get Jackman to appear in Deadpool 3, which will be the MCU's first R-rated movie, but time will tell if that happens.