By now it’s no secret that Hugh Jackman will conclude his tenure as Wolverine in the currently-untitled Wolverine 3. Despite being a spinoff of the main X-Men film series, there have been rumblings of a key character from the franchise appearing in the clawed mutant’s 2017 film. Patrick Stewart alluded earlier this year that he might reprise his role as Professor Charles Xavier in the James Mangold-directed blockbuster, and now it’s official that he will play a major role in the film.
While plugging his new Starz series Blunt Talk, Stewart confirmed to Collider that he will have a major role in Wolverine 3. After he was asked about his involvement in the project, and the rumors of the movie being based on the 2008 series Old Man Logan, Stewart said,
I think what you say is true. There is a project in development. I understand that Professor Xavier will be making more than an appearance, however, and that intrigues me.
Stewart later joked about looking forward to seeing Jackman "getting old" and wearing those prosthetics. However, that statement shouldn’t be considered official confirmation that Old Man Logan will indeed be adapted - something that Jackman teased (possibly jokingly) at San Diego Comic-Con last month. In fact, aside from a small tease that Wolverine 3 will take place in a time not yet seen in the X-Men movies, no plot details have been officially revealed.
It seems appropriate that Stewart would join Jackman on his final adventure in the X-Men cinematic universe. Wolverine and Professor X are the only characters to appear in all the X-Men films so far, with Stewart playing the latter in every film other than X-Men: First Class. Fans will remember that Professor X taught the amnesiac Wolverine about mutantkind and recruited him to help stop Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants. He also helped the clawed mutant learn about his violent, repressed past - a journey which continued into X2: X-Men United.
The mentor/mentee relationship was switched in X-Men: Days of Future Past when Wolverine traveled back to the 1970s and helped break the young Charles Xavier (played by James McAvoy) out of his depression to help stop the rise of the Sentinels. The last time moviegoers saw these two together, Wolverine had awoken in the rewritten, peaceful future timeline, and Xavier was getting ready to give him a crash course history lesson about how history had changed from the time Wolverine came from. It’s unclear how Professor X will be drawn into Jackman’s last journey in the upcoming feature, but as per usual, he’ll likely be there to support his old friend.
We’ll see Patrick Stewart’s Professor X alongside Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine when Wolverine 3 hits theaters on March 3, 2017.
