The Wolverine 2

Production is gearing up on The Wolverine 2, which is assembling a respectable supporting cast for Hugh Jackman’s final outing as the iconic superhero. In addition to the recent casting of Narcos’ Boyd Holbrook, the sequel has added two more stars to the lineup, with Richard E. Grant and Stephen Merchant joining Jackman’s farewell to the the famous mutant.

Hugh Jackman is preparing to hang up his adamantium claws and exit the X-Men franchise, with The Wolverine 2 serving as his official farewell to the iconic character. Many have wondered if Fox will be able to convince Jackman to stay a while longer, and if — or when — Wolverine will be re-cast, but a new rumor suggests an alternative could be in the works…if the implication of this recent casting call is correct, anyway.

It’s a big day for the leading men of Netflix’s Narcos — following Pedro Pascal’s casting in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Boyd Holbrook has lined up a pretty major role in another 20th Century Fox franchise: The Wolverine 2. The actor will go head to head with Hugh Jackman, playing the main villain in Wolverine’s final big screen outing.

With Deadpool, Fox successfully (like, really successfully — record-breaking-successfully) rebooted a character who had previously been horrifically adapted in another, lesser film, and they did so without recasting the role. Miracles do exist. Now that Ryan Reynolds’ Merc With a Mouth has been given a second cinematic life, could the same be done with another actor from X-Men Origins: Wolverine? Liev Schreiber, perhaps?

Following the record-breaking success of Deadpool, a rumor emerged that Fox was targeting an R rating for their sequel to The Wolverine, which would give Hugh Jackman’s mutant hero a proper, brutal sendoff. That rumor appears to be true, as a new report confirms that Fox is indeed aiming for an R, but it has nothing to do with Deadpool — allegedly.

The Deadpool Effect is now officially a thing. As many predicted and suspected following Deadpool’s surprising success at the box office this past weekend, movie studios would try to capitalize on the success of that film by making their superhero movies R-rated (ignoring the fact that that was just a very small part of why Deadpool was successful). Just this morning we brought you the news that the X-Force movie could be rated R and now comes word that Hugh Jackman’s still untitled final Wolverine movie (Wolverine 3? The Wolverine 2?) is being planned as an R-rated film.

Aside from Hugh Jackman’s “Old Man Logan” tipoff during last year’s Comic-Con, we don’t know much about The Wolverine 2. Director James Mangold is returning to the helm of the upcoming sequel, which doesn’t yet have a formal title, though it is expected to hit theaters in 2017. According to a new report, we may be learning a lot more about Jackman’s final outing as the iconic X-Men character as filming is set to begin this spring.

Hugh Jackman has been playing Wolverine for over 15 years. He’s appeared on screen as the iconic X-Men character in seven films, including his uncredited cameo in X-Men: First Class, and by the time The Wolverine 2 rolls around, we can round that number up to eight (and that’s not including the potential for cameos in X-Men: Apocalypse, which he’s denied, as well as Gambit). Fans have been wondering if Wolverine will be recast once Jackman exits the franchise, but according to Bryan Singer and producer Simon Kinberg, that’s not likely to happen.

A couple of weeks ago, Hugh Jackman revealed a teaser image for The Wolverine 2 on Twitter and asked fans what they’d like to see in the new sequel. It’s Jackman’s last outing as the beloved X-Men character, and it makes sense that the actor would want to deliver the best possible story for Logan yet. We know the plot is (somewhat) based on Mark Millar’s Old Man Logan comic, but as Jackman reveals, there were a couple of things in particular that his fans really want to see.

Although he was on the set of X-Men: Apocalypse, we won’t be seeing Patrick Stewart’s elder Professor X in Bryan Singer’s upcoming sequel. But there is good news for fans of Sir Pat Stew, as the actor has revealed that Charles Xavier will reunite with his old pal Logan for The Wolverine 2.