‘Valkyrie’ Scripter Taking On ‘Wolverine’ Sequel

By Brad Brevet
ON

Borys Kit at The Hollywood Reporter brings word Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie) has signed on to write the sequel to Fox’s early summer release X-Men Origins: Wolverine which starred Hugh Jackman as what is arguably the X-Men franchise’s most iconic superhero.

Jackman is set to return as the title character, a mutant with healing powers and a skeleton laced with the indestructible metal known as adamantium. Jackman is also producing via his Fox-based production house Seed along with Lauren Shuler Donner.

Kit also reports the film will take its cue from the early 1980s Chris Claremont/Frank Miller miniseries, which is set in Japan and features Wolverine dealing with ninjas as he struggles whether to follow his animal killer instincts or the life under a samurai’s code of honor and respect. The setting shouldn’t be much of a surprise to fans who caught one of the two alternate post-credit endings which featured Wolverine in Japan and speaking Japanese with his bartender who asks him if he’s drinking to forget. He replies in English that he’s, “Drinking to remember.”

The idea Fox would take on Wolverine 2 was never really in doubt as only a few days after its release a sequel was announced. Wolverine earned $179.7 million at the domestic box-office and over $363 million worldwide on a reported budget of $150 million. The film was directed by Gavin Hood.

As for McQuarrie, he isn’t new to the X-Men franchise after he put in work on Bryan Singer’s X-Men in 2000. He didn’t claim credit for his hand in the script, however, as he voluntarily took his name off the movie when the final version was more in line with David Hayter’s script than his.

There is no word on who will direct or who will be back. Ryan Reynolds is expected to star in a Deadpool spin-off and even Liev Schreiber who plays Wolverine’s brother Sabretooth in the original sounded skeptical in junket interviews for Taking Woodstock. Katey Rich at Cinema Blend delivers the following quote from Schreiber:

“I’m over 40 now, and do I really want to go through the physical stuff that it took to pull that off again? I’m not so sure.” At the same time, he sounded a bit like a fanboy when discussing possible futures for his character. “As an audience member, I’d be really interested to see how you’d go from the Liev Schreiber Victor Creed to the Tyler Mane Victor Creed [from X-Men]. So I’d like to see that.”

I would assume he’s contractually obligated to return, but who knows?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine hits DVD and Blu-ray on September 15, for more on those releases click here.