He's just beginning to have wild hopes (6)
I believe the answer is:
joseph
'he's' is the definition.
'just beginning to have wild hopes' is the wordplay.
'beginning to' suggests taking the first letters.
'have' says to put letters next to each other.
'wild' indicates an anagram.
The initial letter of 'just' is 'j'.
'hopes' anagrammed gives 'oseph'.
'j'+'oseph'='JOSEPH'
(Other definitions for joseph that I've seen before include "- Conrad, novelist (Lord Jim)" , "feature of 21/23 [NATIVITY SCENE]" , "Musical '. . . . . . and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'" , "Jesuss earthly father" , "Name" .)