X-Men: The (fan fic) Series

Hugh Jackman’s just trying to set some world record for playing the same character the most amount of times, at this point, right? May’s release of X-Men: Days of Future Pastmarks the seventh time Jackman has played Wolverine on screen. And while rumors floated that he might not return for James Mangold’s planned sequel to The Wolverine, this morning, we hear the opposite.

Twentieth Century Fox recently went ahead and locked up a release date for Mangold’s untitled Wolverine film, eyeing March 3, 2017 as a window for new mutant action.Deadline follows up that news with confirmation that David James Kelly has been hired to write the screenplay, and that Jackman is “reprising his signature role” for Mangold to direct.

Of course, Mangold kind of hinted at that on his Twitter page:

But we really did wonder if Jackman would want to try on the claws – again – for the eighth time since he first created this version of the character in 2000. It goes without saying that Jackman doesn’t HAVE to keep playing Wolverine. He has earned more money that a human could spend playing Logan, the angry, razor-clawed mutant. He has pushed hard to make a dark, standalone Wolverine movie (in Mangold’s The Wolverine), finally tackling a storyline – set in Japan – that fans of the character have been clamoring for. Simply put, Jackman has climbed this mountain. There are no worlds left to conquer.

But even back when The Wolverine came out, Mangold and Jackman spoke openly about how much they enjoyed the creative collaboration, and left the door open for future Wolverine movies, if the studio would allow.

What we don’t know yet – and won’t know for a while – is the state of Wolverine on theX-Men timeline. Fox has announced that Bryan Singer will be moving from Days of Future Past to X-Men: Apocalypse, but that sequel is expected to lean on the characters from X-Men: First Class — actors like Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence. Wolverine could be in a post-apocalyptic world, as he will be in Days. He could successfully reset the timeline, giving him new areas to explore. That will fall to Kelly, whose credits also Mind Mgmt for Scott Free, and Sentinel, for Appian Way and Fox.

What do you think? Are you happy that Jackman’s staying in the Wolverine role for another standalone film? Would you like to see him paired with another hero for the story? Or is it time to recast? Let us know below.