Wolverine: Daniel Radcliffe addresses rumors he's playing the X-Men star... while hooked to a lie detector

These days, Marvel fancasting is nearly as popular Marvel movies themselves. And one of the most popular among those fancasts is Daniel Radcliffe as Wolverine. In fact, dreams of the ex-Harry Potter as Logan have made it out of the realm of fancasting and into the misty world of casting rumors.

Recently, new light was shed upon those rumors by Radcliffe himself, in an interview the actor did for Variety. What made this one different than the typical celeb junket was the fact that Radcliffe was attached to an actual lie detector (yes, the kind police use) and asked, point-blank, about Wolverine. Radcliffe answered negatively, meaning the rumors of him playing Weapon X are officially bunk.

Or are they?

Let's step back a bit for some context. Daniel Radcliffe took this lie detector test in conjunction with Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez, who are currently on Broadway with Radcliffe in the revival of Stephen Soundheim's Merrily We Roll Along. His Broadway costars needled Radcliffe about a number of embarassing topics, such as Harry Potter slashfic and people frequently mistaking him for Elijah Wood. Then, at the 6:28 mark of the video, Lindsay Mendez brings up Marvel's maverick mutant.

"Did you start the Wolverine rumors?" she asks.

"No," says Radcliffe.

"So you just got buff for no reason?"

The crew laughs.

"Yes," responds Radclife, "I got buff, you know, because, I am obsessive. And I wanted to... you've seen my parents, they're like insane fitness people. And that's just been passed on."

"But no Wolverine," he concludes. "Flattered. But no."

Well, there you have it folks. A conclusive refutation of Daniel Radcliffe as Wolverine, confirmed by no less than a lie detecting machine. The only problem?

The needle moves.

Watch for it at exactly the 6:39 mark, then again at 6:49, just as Radcliffe says "No Wolverine." Now, to be fair, this is not the only time the needle moves just a tad during the interview. Another instance is at 4:04 mark, when costar Groff asks Radcliffe to do a New York accent. Even still, the motion of the needle here and at other points in the interview doesn't measure up to what happens whiele talkking about Logan.

If you're a true crime affficianado, you know that lie detectors cannot be used as evidence in a court of law, despite what you may see on TV. So is that shaky pen in Radcliffe's interview confirmation that he's absolutely playing Wolverine? No. But is it confirmation he's absolutely not?

I'll let you decide.

I can't tell you anything about who's inhabiting the character of Logan next in our world. But in the world of Marvel Comics, it's a demon. Read Joshua Lapin-Bertone's explainer on Hellverine here.