--- title: 'Dominic Monaghan Wants Bolt Back as Marvel Opens Its X-Men Door' type: 'blog post' section: 'Away From Set' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: 'The X-Men Origins: Wolverine actor says he would be glad to play Chris Bradley again, even after the mutant’s rough ending. His pitch is small, funny and actor-sized: an older Bolt, tucked away somewhere, with more story left in him.' author: 'Marcus Reid' published: '2026-08-26' updated: '2026-08-26' about_people: - 'Hugh Jackman' tags: - 'Dominic Monaghan Bolt MCU return' - 'X-Men Origins Wolverine Chris Bradley' - 'Marvel X-Men reboot 2028 cast' - 'Dominic Monaghan ScreenRant interview' - 'Bolt mutant Marvel Cinematic Universe' sources: - 'https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/x-men-origins-wolverine-actor-104500517.html' - 'https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/celebrities/why-hugh-jackman-won-t-mentor-the-next-actor-to-play-wolverine/ar-AA276vqN' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/dominic-monaghan-wants-bolt-back-as-marvel-opens-its-x-men-door' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # Dominic Monaghan Wants Bolt Back as Marvel Opens Its X-Men Door *The X-Men Origins: Wolverine actor says he would be glad to play Chris Bradley again, even after the mutant’s rough ending. His pitch is small, funny and actor-sized: an older Bolt, tucked away somewhere, with more story left in him.* By Marcus Reid, 2026-08-26 · Away From Set Dominic Monaghan wants another turn as Chris Bradley, the electricity-bending mutant called Bolt from 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Yahoo Entertainment reported on August 26, 2026, in a Mandatory story originally reported by Tamal Kundu for SuperHeroHype, that Monaghan said in a recent ScreenRant interview he would be open to bringing the character into Marvel’s current mutant plans. Film readers should care because Marvel’s X-Men reboot is dated for May 5, 2028, in U.S. theaters, and the old Fox bench keeps producing names that refuse to stay in the drawer. ## Dominic Monaghan Still Has Room for Bolt Monaghan is best known to many moviegoers as Merry in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films and related projects, a face built for loyal panic and quick wit. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he played Chris Bradley, also known as Bolt, one of those side mutants who had just enough odd spark to make you wish the movie had stopped by his table a little longer. According to Yahoo Entertainment, Monaghan told ScreenRant he had a “great time” making the Wolverine film. That matters because these old superhero parts can look, from the outside, like scraps from a machine. For the actor inside them, they are still days on a set, hours under lights, scenes with people whose names fill posters. The cast around Monaghan in that film included Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Liev Schreiber and will.i.am, Yahoo Entertainment reported. That is a lot of horsepower for one mutant who can work electricity and electronic devices. Bolt was not given the grandest chair at the table, but he had a clean hook. A man who can reach into the wires of the world is useful in almost any superhero story, especially one built in a studio system that now treats old continuity as a box of spare parts. ![Hugh Jackman at the 63rd annual New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center in 2025 for the film Is This Thing On?](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/6683d73d-a211-4c5d-bb1a-2d09a0c54dd1.webp) *Photo: Bryan Berlin · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hugh_Jackman_Is_This_Thing_On-68.jpg)* ## X-Men Origins Gave Chris Bradley a Hard Exit There is one plain problem with bringing Bolt back: the movie killed him. Yahoo Entertainment reported that Schreiber’s Victor Creed, also known as Sabretooth, kills Bradley in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Monaghan did not pretend otherwise. He joked to ScreenRant that Bradley had his light switched off by Liev’s character, a line with the right kind of gallows humor for a man talking about his own mutant demise. That death is part of why the request is interesting. Monaghan is not asking to reclaim some towering role. He is asking whether a small part with a nasty end might still have a loose wire somewhere. In comic-book films, death has often been less a locked door than a stern suggestion. Still, the honest thing to say is simple: the reporting says Monaghan is open to it. It does not say Marvel Studios has called him, cast him, or built a story around Bolt. The job such a return would hand him is also different now. A younger Bolt could be sold on powers and quick screen business. An older Bolt, if Marvel ever wanted him, would ask for something more human: a man who survived, or should not have survived, carrying the dry humor of someone who knows he was once written off. ![Laura Dern Hugh Jackman at the 63rd annual New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center in 2025 for the film Is This Thing On?](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/d7870e05-d0a2-40c7-ac9f-e1f268ae4c58.webp) ![Hugh Jackman speaking at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/adace883-483f-45d3-8f64-35854f1eab32.webp) *Photos: Bryan Berlin · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laura_Dern_Hugh_Jackman_Is_This_Thing_On-72.jpg); Gage Skidmore · [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hugh_Jackman_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg)* ## His Pitch Is an Older Man in a Caravan Monaghan’s own idea is better than a corporate tease because it sounds like an actor making himself laugh while still meaning it. According to Yahoo Entertainment, he suggested Marvel could bring back an “old-man version” of him, “locked away in some caravan somewhere.” That is a wonderfully modest image for a superhero universe. No throne. No glowing portal. Just a weathered man in a small space, maybe with bad coffee, bad wiring and a past that buzzes when the lights flicker. There is hope in that image, and I mean hope, not knowledge. A character like Bolt does not need the center of the movie to justify his return. He needs one sharp use, one reason the room changes when he enters it. Monaghan’s face can sell a man who has seen enough to be wary and amused at the same time. That is useful in an X-Men story, where powers are rarely only powers. They are burdens, jobs, accidents, defenses, and sometimes the only thing keeping a person alive. Yahoo Entertainment also reported that Monaghan praised the new cast, singling out Sadie Sink’s debut as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and saying he thought she was fantastic. The piece reports his belief that she is going to be good. That is actor-to-actor generosity, and it also places his answer in the present tense of Marvel’s mutant rebuild: he is watching the door open and saying he would not mind stepping through. ![Hugh Jackman siendo entrevistado por el Escorpión Dorado en 2024.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/51b5e39b-c6ee-4df8-8159-8c6c7964858c.webp) ![Ryan Reynolds y Hugh Jackman siendo entrevistados por el Escorpión Dorado en 2024.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/bd319359-06cc-4e8b-8b77-1fec5c58629f.webp) *Photos: PelucheEn ElEstuche · [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) · [source 1](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DEADPOOL_y_WOLVERINE_con_ESCORPI%C3%93N_DORADO_AlVolante_Ryan_Reynolds_y_Hugh_Jackman_son_a_toda_madre2.png), [source 2](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DEADPOOL_y_WOLVERINE_con_ESCORPI%C3%93N_DORADO_AlVolante_Ryan_Reynolds_y_Hugh_Jackman_son_a_toda_madre3.png)* ## Fox’s X-Men Past Keeps Knocking Yahoo Entertainment reported that actors from 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise, including Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, have already moved over to Disney and the MCU in recent years. That is the business side of this little Bolt flare-up. Old contracts end, corporate libraries move, and suddenly a part once filed under another studio’s history becomes available for new use. For the person whose job is to cast these films, that creates both a gift and a headache. Familiar faces bring memory with them. They also bring baggage. Put too many of them in the room and a new X-Men film can start to feel like it is paying attendance instead of telling a story. Use one at the right time, and the audience gets the pleasure of recognition without the movie stopping to salute itself. Monaghan’s case is small enough that it may be easier to imagine than some larger returns. Bolt is not Wolverine. He is not Deadpool. He would not arrive with a franchise strapped to his back. He would arrive as a useful oddity, a man with a power set the camera can understand and an actor who seems game for the joke and the ache of being remembered after a brief stay. Marvel’s next X-Men film is currently scheduled for May 5, 2028, according to Yahoo Entertainment. Between now and then, plenty can change. Scripts change. Casts change. Release calendars have their own weather. What we know is narrower and cleaner: Dominic Monaghan liked playing Bolt, he thinks there are more stories there, and he has already pictured the older version waiting in a caravan, with the lights still ready to answer him. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [Hugh Jackman](https://cinepixo.com/people/hugh-jackman) ## Sources - https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/x-men-origins-wolverine-actor-104500517.html - https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/celebrities/why-hugh-jackman-won-t-mentor-the-next-actor-to-play-wolverine/ar-AA276vqN Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/dominic-monaghan-wants-bolt-back-as-marvel-opens-its-x-men-door Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.