[Update: Mangold & Jackman are in talks for Wolverine 3]
While on the set of The Wolverine last fall, we couldn’t help but ask star Hugh Jackman about what’s in store for his future with the franchise, since he had joked previously that he’d do “eleven more” X-Men movies. At the time, Jackman didn’t want to look past his work on his current project but he wasn’t shy about talking how grueling his workout regiment and diet was.
We later found out that Matthew Vaughn, then-director of the X-Men: Days of Future Past, had already pitched to him the time-travel story of of the next X-Men team-up film, where Jackman’s Wolverine would again be front and center as the character who must travel back in time in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Is there a future beyond this story for Jackman’s Wolverine?
Speaking with MTV at the Toronto International Film Festival, Jackman reflects on what he hints may be his last scene as the Adamantium-laced mutant hero:
“It may be the last. By the way, it didn’t hit me until three weeks before the end [of shooting ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past], because we promoted ‘The Wolverine’ and I came back on set with three weeks to go, and that’s when I went, ‘Well, who knows? Maybe there’s no more Wolverine. Maybe this is it. Who knows? Maybe. So I really made the most of those last few weeks. I enjoyed every time I put the claws on. I nicked everything off the set, so Halloween, come to me and I’ll hook you up. I keep saying it’s like two movies in one, but with the size of it it’s really three in one. It really is going to blow people away because of the story.”
On the story front, Jackman – who owned the stage at Comic-Con while the entire cast made a surprise appearance to promote X-Men: Days of Future Past – recently has been hyping up the Bryan Singer feature by describing it as not just two films in one, but three, referencing just how much comic book content is packed into it.
As for the future of Wolverine, while Jackman plays it smart and professional (and surely, for negotiation reasons) about not confirming future projects or desires, it’s a safe bet he’ll be around for a few more films to come. When chatting with Hutch Parker, producer on many of the X-Men films, he told us Jackman’s a great sport and loves the character more than anyone, explaining that it’s up to the studio to provide great stories worthy of his effort. He was confident they could make a third Wolverine solo outing and one rumor had Fox offering a four-picture extension to keep playing Wolverine.
According to Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2) however, who’s currently writing and hoping to direct X-Force for the studio, the future of the franchise isn’t with character spinoffs but with new teams. Fantastic Four is next in line after Days of Future Past with a spring 2015 release date and ideally, X-Force is next, possibly in 2016. That feature could very well bring back Hugh Jackman as well as he is a crucial part of the modern X-Force team in Marvel Comics. There’s even the possibility that an older Jackman could play a version of the time-travelling mutant Cable which would allow him to play a different type of character with a different backstory.
What we do know is that James Mangold’s The Wolverine permanently changed the character emotionally and physically and how that carries into Days of Future Past remains to be seen, but after realizing he has purpose in life as a “soldier” it would seem strange to not see Jackman sporting claws and mutton chops for years to come.
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Bryan Singer directs X-Men: Days of Future Past with newcomers Peter Dinklage, Omar Sy, Boo Boo Stewart, Fan Bingbing, Evan Peters, Adan Canto, Josh Helman, along with returning stars Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Lucas Till, and Daniel Cudmore.
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X-Men: Days of Future Past on May 23, 2014, Fantastic Four releases March 6, 2015.
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