New X-Men movie ‘The Wolverine’ set to begin filming

Actor Hugh Jackman, star of the X-Men movie franchise, made an appearance at Comic-Con last Thursday to talk with fans and promote his most recent film, “Real Steel.”

In the process, he also gave comic book fans something to get even more excited about: a sequel to his 2009 film, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

In an interview with Access Hollywood after his appearance, Jackman discussed the upcoming movie.

“The script is done for ‘The Wolverine,’” Jackman told the Access reporter.  “I’m literally—this afternoon—going to be meeting up with the director James Mangold.  We are shooting in October.  Very excited about it.”

Jackman also confirmed that the movie’s villain would be Kenuichio Harada, otherwise known as the Silver Samurai; a mutant who has the ability to produce energy, which he uses as a sword.

“That should be exciting,” Jackman told reporters.

This will be Jackman’s sixth time playing the role of Logan in as many installments of the X-Men series.  Starting back in 2000, the first three stories revolved around the X-Men as a group before the series branched off in 2009 with “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” a flick featuring an in-depth history of how Wolverine became the claw-wielding mutant that he is.

After “X-Men: First Class” was released earlier this year and gave fans a look at the history of how the X-Men squad formed, it appears the franchise will now return to the back-story of it’s most popular mutant.

Mangold, who is best known for his direction of the films “3:10 to Yuma” and “Walk the Line,” will now be the fourth director to take on an X-Men series movie.  What he will bring to the popular comic book franchise no doubt had fans at Comic-Con buzzing throughout the weekend.

For Jackman, this is apparently a movie he’s been excited to make for 10 years now.

“Ever since ‘X-Men 1’, I read those comics of the saga in Japan, and I kept saying, ‘Why can’t we do this one?’ “ Jackman said.  “So, 10 years later, we are finally getting there.”

As to when fans can expect the movie to hit theaters, the date has yet to be determined.

photo courtesy of Chesi-Fotos CC via flickr