Bryan Singer Says Wolverine Could Join X-Men: First Class Franchise
Posted 05.05.11 by BrentJS
Comic book movie fans frequently and vocally express their discontent with the way director Matthew Vaughn's X-Men franchise prequel, X-Men: First Class, takes liberties with the mutant super-team's mythology as established in the pages of the X-Men comic books published by Marvel Comics. The new movie mythology was created in the original trilogy of Fox movies and in its one spin-off, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Everything from the starting line-up—the original "first class" of X-Men included Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman and Marvel Girl, of which only Beast (played by Nicholas Hoult ) is on the First Class team—to the relationships between the characters—Havok (Lucas Till) is Cyclops' younger brother in the comic books and wouldn't even have been born yet in this '60s-era movie—to the powers of the characters—like Sebastian Shaw's (Kevin Bacon) weird power in the lastest international trailer—have come under scrutiny.
First Class was conceived by producer Bryan Singer, the director of both X-Men and X2: X-Men United, and he's the one who usually ends up addressing such fan complaints, pointing out that this is a relaunch of the X-Men as much as it is a prequel and that by setting the movie in the '60s it's really not practical to follow the comic book canon. Most fans accept this explanation and are willing to see where Singer and Vaughn take the franchise, but one character that keeps popping up in fan discussions about the movie is Logan, aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman in all previous movies). He is easily the most popular X-Man and could easily fit into the First Class timeline considering how his mutant healing powers make him nearly immortal. Well, don't count the hirsute human Ginsu knife out just yet. According to Singer in a recent interview with IGN, there could be room for Wolverine in a future First Class franchise movie.
I think there would definitely be room [for Wolverine]. I think it would be a very exciting thing. This universe has to establish itself before, but that would be a very interesting and fun thing.
Singer went on to say that the story in First Class is about the friendship—and eventual falling out over the place of mutants in society— between Charles Xavier, aka Prof. X (James McAvoy), and Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto (Michael Fassbender), and that the absence of Wolverine didn't affect his decision to make the movie.
It's a completely different film. Xavier and Magneto are important characters as well. It's just a different X-Men film. I obviously love the character, but you can't not do it just because he's not in it.
The screenplay for X-Men: First Class was written by
Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass). The cast includes Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee, January Jones as Emma Frost, Oliver Platt as The Man in Black, Edi Gathegi as Darwin, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Jason Flemying as Azazel and Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert.
Next Showing: X-Men: First Class opens June 3