Millie Bobby Brown Marvel role: Reveals how she lost the audition
- By Sarah Brohi -
- Jul 06, 2026
Millie Bobby Brown revealed her regret for turning down a Marvel role in the past, saying she felt “broken” after the audition.
The actor achieved global stardom as Eleven in Stranger Things, but was also in the running to appear in the 2017 X-Men spin-off Logan. While appearing on Entertainment Weekly‘s Lie vs Lie video series, Brown shared a story with her Enola Holmes 3 co-star Louis Partridge, leaving him to guess whether it was true or false.
She noted, “I screen-tested with Hugh Jackman when I was like, 11 or 12. The Wolverine movies”. Whilst reflecting on the audition, Brown admitted that it didn’t go as well as she’d hoped, and she was left feeling “broken” at the time.
After listening to her story, Partridge rightly declared that she was telling the truth, as she would’ve been around the right age to play Laura/X23 in 2017. Brown confirmed it was a true story and that she tried to “throw him off” by referring to it as a “Wolverine” movie.
The role of Laura/X23 eventually went to Dafne Keen, and she reprised it in both The New Mutants (via archival footage from Logan) and MCU entry Deadpool & Wolverine. Brown spoke about the role more positively back in 2017, while appearing on Variety’s Actors on Actors series. She described the audition as “the best” and said that it “meant so much” to her.
She also told Evan Rachel during the interview, “I was filming Stranger Things, and I was like, ‘This is gonna be amazing, I’m gonna really prepare, ‘ and I sat in my room reading the lines”. She added, “And honestly, for me, I felt so… I felt like an actor, in the audition room, hitting Hugh Jackman, and director James Mangold sitting right in front of me. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness!’ It was the best audition”.
While Millie Bobby Brown may not have landed that role, she subsequently landed a major part as the titular character in Netflix’s Enola Holmes franchise. The third film in the series was released earlier this week and has received generally positive reviews.