The Wolverine 2: 10 Things We Want To See
Logan promoted to headteacher of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
In case you hadn't heard, it's looking increasingly likely that James Mangold and Hugh Jackman will return for a sequel to The Wolverine . So we thought we'd fire off a few ideas to help them make it bigger, better and more bad-ass.
Like, for starters, the idea above.
We don't care what happens in Days Of Future Past , we want it to end with a post-credit promotion for Logan - putting him in charge of Xavier's youngsters.
It's a plotline that's served the current comics well - Wolverine And The X-Men is packed full of entertaining moments involving Logan's struggles with his academic responsibilities (it's hard to use adamantium claws against admin).
And in terms of the movies, some of our favorite moments of X:2 involved 'art professor' Wolverine's interactions with Charles' students - let's make this the central narrative of W:2 .
Less hitty, more gritty
We loved the first-act of The Wolverine . It was essentially the thoughtful character piece we'd been promised since Darren Aronofsky started talking about his approach to Logan's life-story.
Sadly, the film quickly descended into the typical PUNCHING, PUNCHING, LOUD NOISES, PUNCHING of most superhero movies.
Wolverine's a different kind of superhero, and deserves a different kind of superhero movie. Let's make The Wolverine 2 more methodical, and less OH MY GOD IT'S A BIG METAL MAN, HIT IT, HIT IT, HIT IT.
Blood and gore
Okay, so we're not asking for Jason X-23 , but we would like to see a bit of blood in our next Wolverine movie.
We remember Mangold promising us the most brutal Logan yet in The Wolverine , but the stabbing scenes seemed to have more cuts than Victor Zsasz (and not the good kind).
We want to see the bloody consequences of Wolverine's actions.
The X-Men films have been surprisingly adult from the very first frames of Singer's original film; the audience can handle hard, gritty bloody death - let's give it to them.
Wolverine / Nightcrawler friendship
This one's probably a stretch, but we would love to see support from Nightcrawler, who, during Claremont's classic run, was Logan's best pal.
It's something we haven't seen in the movies, but these characters have a deep connection - not least because they're both big-hearted men who view themselves as monsters.
But their friendship isn't all misery and moping, they're frequently hilarious - particularly when they're sipping 'suds' and putting the world to rights in their local bar.
And, if nothing else, movie audiences will get to find out that Wolverine gave Nightcrawler one of the best nicknames in comics - 'Fuzzy elf.'
DAW.
If the character needs recasting, we could definitely see Daniel Bruhl put on the black and blue bodypaint.
More franchise links
Marvel have proved themselves to be as masterful with franchise movie arcs as they are crossover comics - with every single Marvel movie released so far tying into a mega-plot that keeps each instalment at the top of the box office.
It's so all-encompassing that it's not enough for people to see Thor if they want to follow Thor : The Dark World - it leads directly on from the events of the Avengers and is peppered with moments that only make sense if you've seen that movie.
We want to see the same for The Wolverine 2 , with Mangold picking up the baton from Singer's Days Of Future Past , then setting up Age Of Apocalypse in a clever post-credits scene.
The Wolverine 's post-credits scene shows this is more than possible.
Cyclops
A Wolverine movie without Cyclops is like a Batman movie without Alfred.
Obviously, not in terms of actual plot, because that would mean Bruce Wayne would have to be in a love triangle with his butler. And, good lord, that's a horrifying thought.
But it terms of characters that are intrinsically linked in the minds of comic-book fans, you don't get many more symbiotic than Slim and the ol' Canucklehead.
Their antagonistic relationship in Singer's X-films, and the grudging respect they have for each other in the comics, is an essential aspect of X-lore, and we want it reinstated ASAP.
No more moping
Okay, so even the X-Men: Animated Series featured a scene in which Wolverine - in full-yellow spandex - sat on his bed stroking a framed picture of his *SOB* unrequited true love, but what that show also remembered was that the concept of an indestructible knife-handed immortal who smokes cigars and insults people is actually quite a bit of fun.
So, let's have less (no?) Jean Grey dream sequences in The Wolverine 2 , please.
And many more instances in which Logan calls someone bub and pops a beer can with his claws.
Old Man Logan
Let's make no (adamantium-covered) bones about this one, Hugh Jackman is getting on a bit. But, obviously, we can't imagine anyone else playing the character.
So, easy-solution. Let's use The Wolverine 2 to set up the events of Old Man Logan (Mark Millar's 8-issue comic, set 50 years in the future in which the world's supervillains team up to kill all the heroes. Yes, we know it sounds exactly like Wanted, sssshhh).
Which means Hugh can play Wolvie forever, yay!
A sense of the wider Marvel universe
"In the first Spider-Man we really tried to get me to come on and do something, whether it was a gag or just to walk through the shot or something," Jackman said recently.
"The problem was, we couldn't find the suit. The suit was stuck in something. And so when they were in New York when I was there, we couldn't get it together."
Oh, how we'd kill to travel back in time - Days Of Future Past style - to hand Hugh his leather X-Gear.
We would pay good money to see Andrew Garfield swing by in The Wolverine 2 .
We know, we know, different studios. BUT COME ON.
Gambit
Gambit and Wolverine had a limited comic-book series together in the mid-90s, but that's not why we're suggesting this one.
No, we want repentence for the terrible crimes of X-Men Origins by doing Gambit properly on the big screen.
We want the proper suit, accent and powers, please. And we want Channing Tatum to play him.