X-Men Origins: Wolverine (they need to change that title, and fast) has been adding cast members in a berserker frenzy this week – and today saw two more confirmed for the Marvel/Fox movie. One of them is a surprise, the other is confirmation of a rumour that’s been circulating for months.
As expected, and as we said yesterday (in the story to the right of this one), Ryan Reynolds will be signing on as Deadpool, the fast-talking, wise-cracking mutant mercenary with a healing factor, teleportation pack, array of weapons and larger array of one-liners. It’s a perfect role for Reynolds, and the hope seems to be that the character will spin-off into his own movie (if this movie is Laverne And Shirley, think of it as Joanie Loves Chachi… or, perhaps, don’t).
The surprise is the casting of Black Eyed Peas frontman, will.i.am, who will be taking on his first film role as John Wraith, another Weapon X-created mutant who can, unlike Deadpool, teleport under his own steam.
This would seem to indicate that the Gavin Hood-directed Wolverine will focus largely on the Weapon X portion of Logan’s (once again to be played by Hugh Jackman) life, pre X-Men. And we’re all for that.
The one note of caution we would sound is that, with the addition of Gambit, Deadpool, and Wraith to the already mentioned Sabretooth, Silver Fox and Blob, that the movie might lose its focus on the title character. But we’ll see – we’re sure Jackman, who’s also producing along with Lauren Shuler Donner, Ralph Winter and his producing partner, John Palermo, has things under control.
And hey, comic book fans, rejoice – at last we’re going to see Deadpool, Gambit and Sabretooth done right. What’s not to love? Oh yeah – the title. Well, there’s time enough to do something about that before its release next year.