Last night at 20th Century Fox’s Hall H panel during San Diego Comic-Con, Pan star Hugh Jackman stopped by to kick off the X-Men film section. Before handing the torch over to the new generation of X-actors, the man who’s played Wolverine for over 15 years teased the audience about what’s coming for his final X-Men project. We learned earlier this year that Wolverine 3 will be Jackman’s final time wearing the claws, and he hinted during Saturday’s event that a fan-favorite story would adapted for the film. Well, he didn’t so much hint as jokingly tease. Here’s what Jackman said:
I've got three words for you guys - Old Man Logan. Read into that what you will.
Accompanying the announcement was a picture of Wolverine with his middle claw flipping off the audience. Needless to say that many people freaked out over when they heard that Jackman’s final Wolverine story would be based off the miniseries penned by Mark Millar and illustrated by Steve McNiven.
However, according to our own Sean O’Connell, who was in the audience, Jackman was just making a joke. That’s not to say that we won’t get an Old Man Logan movie, but at minimum, we shouldn’t take the actor’s quip as official confirmation. It’s been rumored several times that the 2008 story would be the basis for Wolverine 3, but so far Fox is staying quiet on the matter. Hugh, don’t toy with our feelings like that!
The main obstacle with adapting Old Man Logan is most of the main players can’t be used by Fox. For those who haven’t read it, the story revolves around an older Wolverine living in a dystopian Marvel future. Having renounced violence and now raising a family, Logan gets drawn back into his old life when when a blind Hawkeye recruits him to travel across the country with him to deliver a package. Along the way they run into adversaries like the Hulk and his inbred family, Red Skull, a symbiote-infused dinosaur and other oddities. The only other X-Men character that played an important role in the story was Emma Frost, and she’s dead in the film universe. Meaning that if Old Man Logan is indeed adapted for film, it will barely resemble the original story since most of the main characters are owned by Marvel. It’s a tricky dilemma.
Whatever Wolverine 3 ends up being about, fans can look forward to the film hitting theaters on March 3, 2017.
