Hugh Jackman sounded rather confident he was done with his X-Men character while doing the press rounds for The Wolverine, responding to Entertainment Weekly when they asked about him doing even more movies featuring the title character. He said, “I wasn’t even sure after the first [stand-alone] film if I would do another. I won’t say never, because I’m still loving it. But there would have to be a pretty compelling reason.” Well, it would appear a “compelling” reason has arrived.
Deadline reports Jackman will re-team with his The Wolverine director, James Mangold, for The Wolverine 2 with Mangold writing the script treatment for the sequel. The film will mark the eighth time Jackman has played the character following next year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.
As for a storyline, nothing has been revealed as of yet, but I’d be willing to bet big bucks at some point Jackman will take his shirt off and extend his arms with his CG claws revealed. Oh, and he’ll definitely look up at the sky and yell. Those seem to be prerequisites.
The Wolverine was made on a reported budget of $120 million and ended up grossing $413.5 million worldwide. I guess, as long as Jackman is willing to make them, there’s no reason for 20th Century Fox to keep greenlighting them.
