My anticipation level for the stand alone Wolverine movie went up about 10 notches the day they announced that Gavin Hood would be directing it. That alone instantly told me the studio was quite serious about the project.
But while I’ve been excited to see the new Wolverine, the rumors about them aiming for a summer 2008 release date were puzzling. Don’t get me wrong… if they actually do start shooting the film in November like they said they are, then they have enough time to get the film properly made by then if they wanted to… but the summer of 2008 is already pretty packed up with Superhero movies. Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Batman, Hellboy is in there somewhere too I think.
So it looks like the studio did the smart thing and moved the release date to May 2009. Our friends over at Firstshowing give us this:
Wolverine to return in 2009! The movie will explore Wolverine’s violent and romantic past, and his complex relationship with Victor Creed and the ominous Weapon X program, as well as his encounters with other mutants. The official reports state that it “is expected to feature many other mutants – some new to the film franchise and some from one or more of the three X-Men films.”
My favorite part of that statement was VICTOR CREED (aka Sabertooth). Now, some of you may object to that because they did a pretty bad job with Sabertooth in the first X-Men film. BUT… to the best of my recolection they never actually called Sabertooth “Victor Creed”. in essence… what they COULD DO (I’m not saying they will… just that they could) is redeem Creed by making him a different character than the Sabertooth in the original. It’s just a thought.
So there you have it. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (apparently the actual title of the movie) comes May 2009. I can’t wait!
