Like it, love it or leak it, there is no denying that the summer of 2009 started off with a bang when X-Men Origins: Wolverine slashed and hacked its way into theaters and into the top 10 grossing movies of the summer. Box Office Mojo currently has it listed at number 8 domestically with $179 million. Combine that with the additional $170 million for foreign sales and is it really any surprise that we are hearing Hugh Jackman talking about a sequel?
During the Teen Choice Awards (which took place this weekend but airs tonight on Fox), Wolverine actually won the action/adventure category but there is a better-than-slim chance tweens across the continent tried to write in Twilight instead. While accepting his surfboard award (whatever happened to trophies?), Hugh “6 Blades” Jackman threw out this quip:
“Who knows, maybe Wolverine will use one of these when he heads to Japan.”
During a backstage video interview, which you can watch here from MTV, Jackman added:
“The ‘going to Japan’ was pretty serious, the ‘using the surfboard’ was not. Not a lot of surfing in Japan. Japan is where we’re heading, [and] we’re starting to work on it now. We’re in the … first steps of developing that story.”
In one of the after-credits segments (there were multiple secret endings) of Wolverine, audiences were treated to a scene of Logan drinking in a Japanese bar, which sort of verified what most of us were hoping – Wolverine 2 would follow the Frank Miller and Chris Claremont storyline which is still wildly popular in the comic world. In their sprawling saga, Wolverine learns to have more control over his rage, to focus it with meditation and use it to his advantage. He has always been a brawler but during this saga he learns to become a skilled fighter using more than just the blades in his arms to fight.
Jackman has never kept it to himself on how important it is to bring that story to life and how much he thinks fans want to see it told as well.
“I think the fans love that saga. It’s my favorite saga of the Wolverine stories. That’s a movie I’ve longed to make from the beginning, so that’s where we’re heading.”
I had my issues with the origin story like a lot of people did, but I can’t help but think the second installment will be much better than the first. Here’s why; they were just making stuff up to fit a story that would eventually get Wolverine to Japan, that’s why the first movie was so convoluted and didn’t make any sense to fans of the Wolverine character. Now that they are in a setting were a very popular story has already been told, they have something to go off of and have no need to shoot from the hip. Also, Hugh Jackman is quickly making Wolverine his legacy. Assuming Wolverine 2 aims for a 2012 release, he will have been in five films in twelve years as the mutant superhero.
Do you like where the Wolverine franchise is heading with the Japanese saga or do you think it’ll disappoint?
Wolverine 2 has no officially scheduled release date.
Source: MTV
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