Wolverine has a new superpower: crowdsourcing.
Hugh Jackman, who plays the mutant hero, hit Twitter on Tuesday to ask fans what they’d like to see in the upcoming third Wolverine movie.
The Aussie claimed he’d read as many replies as possible and later posted a video thanking fans, saying he was “blown away” by the ideas. And looking through the replies, sure enough, some fans submitted solid ideas — though not every one was a winner. Check out the five best and worst submissions.
The best
As Jackman said, “Wolverine 3,” scheduled for release in 2017, will be his last time strapping on the claws. What then?
Fox will likely reboot the role with another actor, but what if they could find a way to introduce a successor in “Wolverine 3”? Sort of like a Robin to Jackman’s Batman?
Those characters exist in the comic book world. Wolverine’s long-lost son Daken debuted in 2007 and has claws and abilities similar to his father. X-23 showed up in 2004 and is a female clone of Wolverine. (Don’t ask.) Like Daddy, she has claws and a healing ability.
Could either or both of these characters be introduced in “Wolverine 3,” then counted on to carry future solo movies?
Lots of fans were pleading with Jackman for a face-off with Omega Red, a sort of evil Soviet equivalent to Captain America who was created in the early ’90s and has tussled with the X-Men multiple times in the comics.
The only drawback: He may seem too similar to Mickey Rourke’s Ivan Vanko in “Iron Man 2.”
One challenge screenwriters have had with Wolverine is that he’s virtually indestructible. He heals almost instantaneously and has metal bonded to his bones. How do you put your hero in jeopardy when he can’t really be killed?
“The Wolverine,” released in 2013, dealt with the problem by having the superhero’s healing factor removed.
Another option, which was suggested by many fans, was to revisit a 1993 “X-Men” storyline in which Magneto rips all the adamantium from Wolverine’s body.
Having Wolverine square off against Magneto would also be a way to include Ian McKellen in the movie — never a bad thing.
This is the way Jackman should go out. What better tribute to the actor who’s inhabited the role for 15 years than to allow him to star in Wolverine’s final adventure?
Fans apparently want to see Wolverine really cut loose, and during the years leading up to the release of “The Wolverine,” Jackman had been talking up a blood-soaked, R-rated, adult film.
But at the end of the day, the filmmakers and the studio got cold feet and opted to release “The Wolverine” as PG-13, disappointing many. Could now be the time for an R-rated film finally?
Keep an eye on next year’s “Deadpool,” a more adult-oriented superhero spun off from the X-Men universe. That movie will be R, and if it cleans up at the box office, you’d have to think Fox would consider the same rating for “Wolverine 3.”
The worst
If it wiped away “Van Helsing” and “Australia,” Jackman might take that deal.
No. Wrong. The whole appeal of Wolverine is that he is rage personified. He’s all about violence and blood and pain. Having him live happily ever after might be good for him, but it wouldn’t be very nice for the people who paid for movie tickets.
Many, many people on Twitter suggested an adaptation of this 2008 comic book storyline that imagined an elderly Logan roaming a post-apocalyptic United States controlled by the villain Red Skull. The problem is, many of the story’s important secondary characters — Hawkeye, Red Skull, Hulk — aren’t controlled by Fox, the studio that releases the Wolverine movies.
The writers would have to completely change the story and most of the characters in it, keeping only the premise of an elderly Wolverine. Is that an “Old Man Logan” worth watching?
Not surprisingly, this was not the only Edward Scissorhands joke Jackman got.