Rumors have been bubbling up aboutWolverine 3but very little has been confirmed outright, even after the film is seemingly all done. It seems pretty clear that the film will follow theOld Man Loganstoryline in some way, though I can’t imagine that it will be beat-for-beat what’s in that particular line of comics. It’s also looking pretty certain that this will be the last time that we will seePatrick Stewart’s glorious dome in the guise of Professor X, leaving the throne toJames McAvoyand his no-less-glorious bald head.
Another major rumor that’s been floating around is who, exactly, Wolverine will face off with in the new movie. Nerdist News had a story a few months ago that suggested thatLogan would be facing off with the Reavers, a group of cyborn mercenaries as well as their creator, Donald Pierce, a member of the notorious Hellfire Club.Boyd Holbrookhas been confirmed as being a villain, described as the head of security for a global corporation on the lookout for Wolverine, whileRichard E. Grantis playing some kind of mad scientist, who could indeed be Pierce.
A little more light was shown on all this hypothesizing today whenCinemablend confirmedthat in the audio commentary forX-Men: Apocalypse, directorBryan Singersays that Nathaniel Essex will be a villain inWolverine 3. For those not familiar with the comics, Nathaniel Essex also goes by the name Mister Sinister, and he’s about as powerful a villain as the X-Men ever faced next to Apocalypse. In the comics, Sinister is capable of damn near anything and has a deep-seated disgust with anything or anyone who is not up to his might. Singer pointed at a post-credits sequence inX-Men: Apocalypsewhere the name Essex Corp. can be seen on a briefcase, and then went on to say that Essex Corp. and Nathaniel will be incorporated intoWolverine 3.
So, is the global corporation Essex Corp. then? It seems very likely, but there’s no clear way of knowing if Holbrook will be playing Mister Sinister or if a yet-to-be-revealed actor will be playing the character. Regardless, this is humongous news for fans of the source material and makes the impatience to get more information about the third movie all the more intense.
