Ioan Gruffudd recently spoke about why the scene in which his character Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic transforms into Wolverine was cut from director Tim Story’s Fantastic Four. Notably, Gruffudd portrayed Reed in two movies, the aforementioned 2005 feature and 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. When the first movie came out, Hugh Jackman had already appeared as James “Logan” Howlett / Wolverine in the first two X-Men movies.
Ioan Gruffudd on why his Wolverine imitation scene was cut
Ioan Gruffudd gave an extensive interview to Vulture about his experience of playing Reed Richards. When asked about the Fantastic Four deleted scene featuring Reed turning into Wolverine, the actor responded, “I don’t know why that didn’t make it into the film. Paying homage to the great Hugh Jackman was quite a thrill because I absolutely love him as an actor and his Wolverine.” He added that he was “glad that it has a chance to exist somewhere.”
In the scene in question, Gruffudd’s Reed and Jessica Alba’s Sue Storm / Invisible Woman discuss their romantic history. Julian McMahon’s Victor von Doom / Doctor Doom comes up during the conversation, but Sue makes it clear there was never anything between them. This prompts Reed to jokingly say that he thought Sue wanted someone “stronger” and to turn into Jackson’s Wolverine.
The Harrow star explained how that scene was shot, revealing he and Alba weren’t in the same place when it was filmed. He said, “That was a reshoot, and I was in Vancouver on a soundstage and Jessica was in New York, so we weren’t actually together, but we look perfectly in sync.”
The interviewer then pointed out that Gruffudd could be proud of being the only actor to play both Mister Fantastic and Wolverine. The Bad Boys: Ride or Die actor laughed and replied, “For a brief second, yes. That’s a good pub-quiz question.”
Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer are available for streaming on Disney+.