Following the global success of James Mangold’s The Wolverine last year, rebooting the titular character’s standalone franchise, it was all but inevitable that Fox would want to move forward on a sequel, particularly with the studio’s only other current comic book movie property being the upcoming The Fantastic Four reboot.
Now Mangold has taken to Twitter to give us a better idea of when we can expect the sequel, which will be the third instalment in Logan’s personal arc, to arrive. When asked by a user if the new Wolverine film will be arriving after Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse, Mangold very clearly replied in the affirmative:
@R__E__D_R__U__M @20centuryfox @ShuDonner We are figuring it all out. At the moment, I’m shooting The next #Wolverine after #XmenApocalypse.
Apocalypse is currently set to be released on 27th May, 2016, and will mark the third instalment in that side of the X-Men franchise, with Singer recently revealing that the film is to be set in the 1980s, following on from Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class and this summer’s highly anticipated X-Men: Days of Future Past.
As to the story for the Wolverine sequel, of course everything is being kept under wraps for the time being. Mangold spoke in interviews last year about starting to write the treatment for the next chapter in Logan’s arc, but hasn’t yet revealed how far along he’s come on that front, or who will be writing the screenplay itself.
With Fox releasing Days of Future Past this summer, The Fantastic Four next summer, and Apocalypse in Summer 2016, it seems like a likely slot for The Wolverine 2 to hit cinemas in Summer 2017, but of course that remains to be seen. No doubt the studio are very aware that their competitors are starting to releasing at focus on at least one comic book movie a year. Marvel have been doing so like clockwork since 2008, with plans continuing well into 2017 already, and Sony have recently announced their intentions for one superhero movie film a year within the Spider-Man Universe, with The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and 4 already set for 2016 and 2018, and Venom and Sinister Six movies announced as being in the pipeline.
So whilst you can only use pencil on your calendar, it seems like a very good possibility that The Wolverine 2 will be landing in Summer 2017, quite possibly followed by a sequel to Apocalypse vying for your attention against The Amazing Spider-Man 4 and whatever Marvel and Warner Bros. bring to the table in 2018.
