With X-Men: Apocalypse right around the corner, eyes are already looking ahead to what's coming up next. We know the X-Men universe is expanding under Bryan Singer and 20th Century Fox's guidance, with films such as New Mutants, Deadpool 2, and the upcoming Wolverine 3 featuring Hugh Jackman's final performance as Logan. But there's also that long rumored X-Force film, and it turns out its fate could tie-in directly with that of Wolverine.
Singer spoke with Fandango and confirmed that an X-Force movie is in the works, and it could include the next version of Wolverine, otherwise known as X-23....
"I have discussed that with the studio," Singer reveals. "I actually initially pitched the X-Force and the female."
Singer probably wouldn't have much to do with the film other than on an idea level, but his input would go a long way in making all of this happen. X-23 aka Laura Kinney is often referred to as Wolverine's daughter but that's not true. She's a clone made from his DNA and gifted with similar powers of enhanced senses, healing factor, and adamantium claws. She also has the tendency to go berserk just as Wolvie does. Like father like daughter. In the comics X-23 is first part of the X-Men but eventually joins Wolverine in a version of X-Force, a team that has also included Deadpool and Cable.
A couple of years ago Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2) was hired to begin work on an X-Force script but that never came to be. Now Singer tells Den of Geek that Simon Kinberg is working on the latest version, and yes it will be R-rated as it should be...
"But if we were to make an X-Force movie, that probably should be R-rated. And what we’re doing with the ‘Wolverine’ movie… that wasn’t impacted by ‘Deadpool.’ We’d made the decision for ‘Wolverine’ to be R-rated before ‘Deadpool came out. But I think there’s even more confidence about having made that decision now that you see that an R-rated ‘Deadpool’ movie can do better than any X-Men movie’s ever done.”
For those who don't quite believe him that 'Wolverine' was always going to be R-rated, I'd suggest they watch The Wolverine uncut edition and see how lethal he is in that. They were setting the stage for a more violent film way back then.
