X-Men Star Hugh Jackman Talks About his Final Wolverine Movie

Wolverine star Hugh Jackman has spoken about preparing for his final big screen appearance as the iconic member of the X-Men. The third standalone Wolverine film is currently scheduled for a 2017 release, but in an interview with Collider, Jackman revealed that the film was still being written.

"I'll be really honest with you, the actual script in its full form we're up to about page 60. Obviously there's a treatment, so it's not fully done yet, we're not fully there," he said. "I'm sounding a little cagey because this is the last time I'm playing him, and I have just made the commitment to myself, really, and told everyone that until that script is perfect, until it is that perfect way to sign out, I'm not gonna start shooting."

Jackman also stated that Patrick Stewart's Professor X character would play a part in the new movie, something Stewart himself confirmed in August.

"Patrick does figure in it, that's for sure," Jackman said. "I think it's a really important relationship but I want to see signs of that quasi-father/son sort of relationship that has not been seen before, and sides of particularly Professor X that have not been seen before. So we have some really, really cool ideas.

"I really have known for quite a long time how I want to finish this sort of odyssey that I've been on, this amazing journey. And I won't let it fall anywhere in between. I won't fall short of it."

According to Jackman, the plan is to start shooting next year, although the production location was currently "one of the things that is up in the air."

The third Wolverine will be directed by James Mangold, who previously helmed 2013's The Wolverine, which went on to make more than $400 million worldwide. At San Diego Comic-Con in July, Jackman hinted strongly that the film would draw from the Old Man Logan line of comic books, a futuristic storyline which sees Wolverine as the world's last remaining mutant.

The film is one of four upcoming films that form part of Fox's X-Men universe, with Deadpool due in February 2016, X-Men: Apocalypse following in July, and the currently directorless Gambit scheduled for next October.