Let’s be real, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not the most beloved of the X-Men movies. We placed it at #11 in our ranking of the live-action X-Men movies released so far, and some of you may consider it to be the worst of the bunch. Still, it does have a few redeeming qualities, such as spotlighting a handful of mutants for the first time on the big screen. This included Fred J. Dukes, a.k.a. Blob, and according to Kevin Durand, there had been plans for his character to return in a special way for a Wolverine sequel.
While promoting Abigail, the upcoming horror movie that’s about to arrive on the 2024 release schedule, Durand was asked by Comicbook if he’s appearing in Deadpool & Wolverine, which was fair to bring up considering how many cameos are already set for the upcoming Marvel movie. Durand responded:
I really should be because I remember when we were doing the scenes in Wolverine, he just kept saying 'You're going to end up with your own movie,' and he really wanted me to come back and do the next Wolverine and The Blob was going to be the sumo wrestling champion in Japan when he goes to Tokyo but it never panned out.
I would’ve been game to see this beyond just the fact that Blob’s physique makes him suitable for sumo wrestling on its own. Following the dissolution of Team X in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he became depressed and developed an eating disorder, so John Wraith started training him in boxing. So with The Wolverine being set in Japan, Hugh Jackman’s Logan could have seen his former comrade reigning supreme in a different type of combat sport. And with The Wolverine being a standalone sequel, perhaps the character would have been handled even better under the direction of James Mangold.
Alas, for whatever reason, this appearance never came to be, and Kevin Durand also didn’t clear up whether or not Fred Dukes would have been an ally or enemy to Wolverine after the sumo wrestling was out of the way. Maybe it’s for the best though, because later on in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Wraith told Sabretooth that his “creepy black coat” didn’t scare him, to which Sabretooth responded that it “worked on Dukes.” At the very least, Liev Schreiber’s character was able to intimidate Blob into telling him where Wraith and Logan were going, but there’s also a strong possibility he killed the overweight mutant, which would have taken appearing in The Wolverine off the table.
Still, Kevin Durand did say that he’d be “game” if the opportunity to reprise Blob came along. No doubt though this would be as a different version of the character, like how Aaron Stanford is playing a different version of Pyro in Deadpool & Wolverine, which comes out on July 26. In addition to Abigail’s forthcoming release, Durand is also a member of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ cast, playing Proximus Caesar. The movie releases on May 10.
