Stranger Things’ Biggest Icon Was Almost A Marvel Star

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 1 hour ago

While she has tried to branch out with new franchises like Enola Holmes, it’s fair to say that Millie Bobby Brown’s entire career has been defined by Stranger Things. It’s tough to see her as anything other than that tiny girl with enough freaky psychic powers to take on monsters from another dimension. However, we came dangerously close to knowing this actor for something else entirely. As it turns out, we almost knew her as the star of the best X-Men movie!

Over the years, many fans have compared Brown’s Stranger Things character to Jean Grey, the X-Man who has both fantastic psychic abilities and a hidden dark side (the Dark Phoenix) with the power to destroy everything. In retrospect, it seems clear that the Duffers were inspired by old issues of Uncanny X-Men. However, it wasn’t Jean Grey that Brown nearly portrayed onscreen. Instead, it was another mutant who is near and dear to Wolverine’s heart: X-23!

The X-Man Who Never Was

This surprise info comes to us courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, who invited Millie Bobby Brown to participate in one of their “Lie vs. Lie” videos. In it, Brown shared a crazy audition story, and her Enola Holmes 3 costars had to guess whether she was telling the truth or not. What the Stranger Things star told them was, “I screentested with Hugh Jackman when I was like, 11 or 12.” She then gave them a little more to go on, saying the audition was for “the Wolverine movies.”

After she said this, co-star Louis Partridge engaged in some deduction worthy of Sherlock Holmes. She did the math and determined that Brown would have been the perfect age to play X-23 in 2017’s Logan. “It’s true,” Brown confirmed. “And it was for Logan. I just thought to throw you off with the Wolverine movies.” During the game, she also disclosed that the audition went poorly and how she felt afterwards. “Broken,” she said. “I felt like I probably didn’t get it, because I think there was someone else that was better.” 

Lean, Mean, and Keen

That person was, of course, Dafne Keen, who played X-23 to perfection in Logan before reprising that role for Deadpool & Wolverine. With respect to Millie Bobby Brown, Keen did such an amazing job as this character that it’s really hard to imagine anyone else playing her. This is especially true because Logan was an emotional rollercoaster that revolved around X-23’s relationship with characters like Wolverine and Professor X. While the bad writing didn’t help, Brown was notoriously emotionless for much of Stranger Things’ final season, so it’s frankly understandable that she didn’t get the role.

While Brown sounded like she was devastated not to get that juicy role in Logan, her career quickly took a major upturn. One year before that seminal mutant movie premiered, she starred as the pivotal character Eleven in Stranger Things, a show that became a breakout hit. That series was originally designed as an anthology that would focus on new characters each season, but the Season 1 characters (chiefly Eleven) proved so popular that the series went on nearly a decade longer. As for Keen, outside of Marvel movies, her biggest role has been playing Jecki in The Acolyte, a controversial Star Wars show canceled after one season.

Now, headlining movies such as Enola Holmes 3 (currently streaming on Netflix), Millie Bobby Brown is hoping to stretch her acting chops and ensure that she isn’t completely defined by Stranger Things. With that in mind, we wouldn’t be surprised if Marvel gave her a call one day and offered her a role, possibly in the upcoming X-Men movie. Depending on whether they even bother recasting Wolverine, this might give her a chance to finally act alongside Hugh Jackman. Should that happen, we can only hope the screentest goes better this time!