Though any true comic-book fan will recoil at the mere mention of Gavin Hood’s atrocious X-Men Origins: Wolverine, unquestionably the worst outing for Hugh Jackman’s adamantium-clawed mutant to date, James Mangold’s follow-up, The Wolverine, was a marked improvement. Boasting the Silver Samurai, an incredible action sequence on top of a bullet train, and a darker story more in sync with the character’s comic-book incarnations, it certainly demonstrated that it was possible to make enjoyable stand-alone Wolverine films.
Now, Mangold has revealed that he’ll be launching into The Wolverine 2 shortly after production wraps on X-Men: Apocalypse, Bryan Singer’s planned follow-up to this May’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. In response to Twitter user Røb, he recently tweeted:
@R__E__D_R__U__M @20centuryfox @ShuDonner We are figuring it all out. At the moment, I’m shooting The next #Wolverine after #XmenApocalypse.
— Mangold (@mang0ld) March 15, 2014
It’s definitely exciting to see that Mangold is ready to jump back into the world of Wolverine once again, considering how The Wolverine turned out. Jackman will likely reprise the role, despite his recent comment that recasting is “inevitable.” The star previously revealed that he’d tossed around some ideas for a sequel to The Wolverine with Mangold and that he’s very excited about one option they may pursue.
How X-Men: Apocalypse shakes up the series’ universe will certainly play into any sequel to The Wolverine. We’ve seen from X-Men: Days of Future Past previews that the character regains his adamantium claws and Apocalypse is sure to complicate his life even more, with Singer hinting at absolutely massive destruction.
If all goes according to Fox’s master plan, we may be seeing a sequel to The Wolverine by 2017. Completing standalones for the character is likely a priority for the studio at this point, considering Jackman’s age and the large success of the character’s last solo outing.
As always, we’ll keep you posted when we hear more.
