Simon Kinberg talks Wolverine 3 script and New Mutants

Over the next several years Fox's mutant universe plans to deliver more spin-offs and sequels, as well as introducing characters never before seen onscreen. Of its standalone outings, The Wolverine 3 is one in particular that's whipping fans into a frenzy. Why is that you ask? It's going to be the last time Hugh Jackman dons the adamantium claws. So when can audiences expect to see his triumphant goodbye?

"We’re pretty close to a script that everyone’s excited about," producer Simon Kinberg told Collider in a recent interview, "and I don’t know when the start date is, but we won’t start until it’s ready to shoot."

With such a beloved character, the pressure to give him a proper send-off is understandable. "There are few characters in the history of cinema who have cast as big a shadow as Wolverine," he explains, "so to tell the final chapter of that story, it has to be the best, and it has to have a mythic quality to it. So we have to get it right, and I think we will, and my experience working with Jim Mangold, I’ve been extraordinarily impressed with him... I have very high hopes for that movie."

While the future of the main X-Men franchise is unknown at this stage, Fox's plans to branch out into new terrain involves Josh Boone's New Mutants. The comic series is known for introducing Deadpool among many other fan favorites. At this point, it's still in early development, and Kinberg explains that he's just as in the dark as the rest of us about its progress. "I don’t know what the production plan is," he adds. "Like with all of these things, we have to get the script right. That’s the most important part of it, and they’re just working on the first draft now, but the hope is that we’ll shoot it soon." Seeing as Fox's calendar includes an untitled Marvel movie for 2017, there's a chance that should a script for New Mutants land approval it might nab that spot.

However long it takes, Kinberg has little worry about Boone's intentions for the movie. "Josh has been game with this and gave us this incredibly elaborate presentation about New Mutants. He’s a huge comic book fan and grew up loving and reading specifically New Mutants, so he came with a whole movie presentation where he laid the film out and it was really cool." Can it be 2017, now please?

Directed by Tim Miller and starring Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool will open in the UK on February 4 2016 and the US on February 12 2016. The Bryan Singer-directed X-Men Apocalypse opens in the UK on May 19 2016 and in the US on May 27 2016, while The Wolverine 3 hits cinemas on March 3 2017.