Despite the fact that it’s scheduled to come out next year and has been in the works for a good while now, not much is known about the upcoming, untitled Wolverine 3. James Mangold, the director of The Wolverine, will be back at the helm, and we know it will be Hugh Jackman’s final time playing the titular character, but we don’t know anything about the story other than the fact that Logan will be joined by Patrick Stewart’s Professor Charles Xavier in the adventure. Because of the expansiveness of the X-Men franchise timeline, one key bit of information to know is simply when it will all be set, and that’s a bit of trivia I recently picked up from producer Simon Kinberg. We can now confirm that The Wolverine 3 will be set in the future.
As we reported earlier, this week I had the pleasure of sitting down with X-Men franchise producer Simon Kinberg and Deadpool director Tim Miller, and while discussing the larger timeline for the X-Men film franchise and the goal to eventually bring the separated elements of the series together, Kinberg let a bit of information slip and confirmed that the story of The Wolverine 3 will be set in a time beyond our own. When referencing how the most recent X-Men trilogy of films covered the 1960s, '70s and '80s, the filmmaker confirmed this about the untitled Wolverine movie:
The Wolverine movie takes place in the future.
The presence of Patrick Stewart’s Professor X certainly hinted to fans that the story of Wolverine 3 would be set after most of the chronicled events in the franchise to this point, but the idea of the film legitimately being set in the future is an interesting detail to note… particularly because of rumors that have been swirling for months. There have been many reports and comments from Hugh Jackman that have suggested that Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s future-set "Old Man Logan" storyline from the comics would have an influence on the sequel, and Simon Kinberg’s comments certainly lend a bit of credence to that idea. Of course, "future" is a word that can both refer to a time one week from now, or 50 years.
From a franchise perspective, it makes sense to put Wolverine’s sendoff beyond the present day just because the events won’t screw with the larger continuity in that position, and it’s also fertile, unexplored ground thanks to the timeline-wiping events of X-Men: Days of Future Past. But how far in the future do you think the story will go? Hit the comments section below with your thoughts. Stay tuned for more Wolverine 3 updates and look for Deadpool on Blu-ray May 10th.
