Yesterday, we told you about the addition of two comic book favorite character’s to Twentieth Century Fox’s X-Men franchise spin-off, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Now comes word via The Hollywood Reporter that a few more characters are going to make the jump from two-dimensional and four-color existence to live action cinema.
Blackeyed Peas frontman will.i.am will be appearing in the film as Wraith, a mutant who can turn himself translucent while Lynn Collins has been cast as Kayla Silverfox, Wolverine’s lover and a member of the superpowered covert operations team Team X.
The Reporter article also confirmed Ryan Reynolds participation in the film as the mercenary Deadpool, though the role is described as a “cameo.” That makes me think the character is being put in to the film merely to set up a Deadpool flick later on. You may recall that Reynolds’ Blade 3 character was also touted to get a spin-off film, though that never materialized.
With the addition of these characters onto the film’s roster, Wolverine is starting to look like a very crowded movie and that’s disappointing. In addition to Deadpool, Wraith and Silverfox, the movie will also feature Liev Schreiber as the mutant Sabertooth (played by Tyler Mane in the first X-Men film) and Danny Huston as General Stryker, the military man behind the program that gave Wolverine his powers and who appeared in X2: X-Men United in the form of Brian Cox.
Both X-Men 3 and Spider-Man 3 suffered from too many characters running around, many feeling as if they were shoehorned into the films simply to appease comic fans. The results of such fan service leaves the films muddled and in the case of Spider-Man 3, the addition of the Venom plotline severely unbalanced the film and the plots and relationships that director Sam Raimi had worked so hard to build with the previous two films. However, with the films pulling in $234 million and $336 million at the box office respectively, I find it hard to believe that Marvel will want to change this tactic anytime soon.
