Director James Mangold In Talks To Slash His Way Through WOLVERINE 3

The Wolverine has earned an impressive $413 million worldwide making it one of the most successful X-Men films to date. Obviously, it’s director James Mangold should be given some of the that credit. 20th Century Fox is now in talks with Mangold to direct a sequel to the film according to Deadline. Hugh Jackman of course is expected to reprise the role of Wolverine. Giving more fuel to the talk Jackman’s possible contract with Fox for three-four more X-Men films. It’s unknown at this point if the events of Days of Future Past will effect the timeline for Wolverine future films. James is making a deal that would include him writing a treatment for the project. Lauren Shuler Donner is attached again to produce the film. It’s not mentioned but it’s possible we could also see the return of Logan’s new side-kick played by Rila Kukushima.

This is excellent news for X-Men and Wolverine fans. In my opinion The Wolverine was actually one of the better films in the franchise, excluding it’s wacky ending. I’m glad Mangold is back and more importantly involved with writing the sequel’s story. Perhaps, it’ll be more grounded and give us more of the berserker. Considering it’s massive box office take overseas, I assume they’ll set the film in another foreign country. Allowing Logan to keep his fish out of water angle which was some of the charm of the last film. I’d also be interested to see if they’ll end up using Wolverine’s classic costume (seen above) which had been created for The Wolverine but never used.

As for the sequel’s plot that is actually unknown at this point. However, there were some hints to Arkady Gregorivich better known as Omega Red in both X2 and The Wolverine. A Russian born mutant cyborg villain who has a long history fighting Wolverine and the X-Men. A serial killer turned KGB super-soldier, having ties to the Russian mob and Hydra (Viper connection perhaps?). Omega Red is clearly on the desktop of William Stryker’s computer in X2. Along with the tentacle medical robots that suppresses Logan’s powers in The Wolverine. Acting very similar to Omega’s life-force draining cybernetics. The villain has been pretty much associated with Logan just as much as Sabertooth. Also being apart of most of Wolverine’s animated outings. Placing Logan in a modern Russia littered with mobsters and cutthroats could be an excellent setting for a sequel. I for one would love to see the role played by Daniel Craig. As Craig played a solid villain in Road To Perdition, knows Russian thanks to his role in Defiance and did a play with Jackman not too long ago.

SOURCE: DEADLINE