Deadpool & Wolverine star Dafne Keen says that she would love to keep playing X-23 – if Marvel Studios would have her.
Deadpool & Wolverine brought back actress Dafne Keen as Laura, aka X-23, the female clone of Wolverine. After her breakout performance in James Mangold’s Logan (2017), Keen surprised Marvel movie fans all over the world when she popped up in Deadpool & Wolverine reprising her role as X-23. Keen playing an older and more experienced version of X-23 seems to have impressed fans as much as her original performance did. Like so many of her co-stars in the film (Channing Tatum, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Garner) Keen now has a dedicated section of the Marvel fandom demanding to see more of her in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
For her part, Dafne Keen hasn’t been one to close the door on the idea of following in Hugh Jackman’s footsteps and making a career out of playing X-23. In fact, in a recent interview with Empire Magazine, when asked if she would commit to playing X-23 in the MCU, Keen outright stated “I would 100% do this for the rest of my life.”
When ComicBook spoke to Dafne Keen recently, she went a step further in stating her commitment to having a larger arc as Wolverine in the MCU reboot of X-Men:
“I would love to come back. I would pay them to come back. Playing Laura has been the biggest honor of my life,” Keen tells ComicBook’s Phase Zero. “To me, we’ve only scratched the surface with her since she’s such a complex character. She’s so cool, just from a fan’s standpoint.”
Could X-23 Appear In the MCU?
There’s clearly a lot of fan enthusiasm behind the idea of Dafne Keen continuing as X-23 in the MCU – it’s also one of the more doable castings to pull off. Dafne Keen is still establishing herself in this next adult phase of her career; in addition to her return as X-23 this year, Keen played another breakout character (Jedi padawan Jecki Lon) in Star Wars: The Acolyte, only expanding her resume and following. Since Jecki’s time in Star Wars was… limited, Keen is ready for that big franchise role that will carry her to the next level, and since she already beat the odds as a child actor, why not continue building on that success?
Marvel Studios’ X-Men reboot will have a major Wolverine hurdle to get over. Dafne Keen’s X-23 could mirror the comics by stepping up and fully taking on the Wolverine mantle from Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, which would not only be movingly poetic, cinematically, but would also mirror the comics. Option “B” would be having Keen’s X-23/Wolverine be a second version of the character in the MCU, able to cross over into teams like the Young Avengers, New Mutants, or even the darker waters of X-Force.
Either way, it seems like it would be very foolish for Marvel Studios to squander the chance to keep Dafne Keen’s run as X-23 going.
Deadpool & Wolverine is now in theaters.
