Maybe: ‘Wolverine 3’ villains have been revealed
Hark! Thar be spoilers after the jump!
The Nerdist, citing a source close to the production, claims that the Reavers will show up in Wolverine 3. Although not especially well-known beyond comic book fanatics, the Reavers have menaced the X-Men (and Wolverine in particular) since Chris Claremont’s acclaimed X-Men run in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Although the make-up and goals of the group have shifted over time, they have always been cyborgs and they have almost always hated Mutants and have gone out of their way to destroy them. In their most famous iteration, they worked under the orders of Donald Pierce, a genocidal maniac who wanted to destroy all Mutants. Could this be who Richard E. Grant is playing in the film?
Although Wolverine 3 is supposedly an adaptation of Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s “Old Man Logan” storyline, following an aging Wolverine in an ugly dystopian future, the Reavers don’t play a role in that story at all. That means director James Mangold and writers Michael Green and David James Kelly are doing what the rest of the X-Menmovies have done so far – using the comics as more a suggestion than a guideline. That’s perfectly fine, as long as the final movie is good (and Mangold’s The Wolverine is very good).
The same Nerdist post also speculates that this iteration of the Reavers may allow for the return of a few classic X-Men villains, which is fun to think about if you want to put on your nerd theory hat for a little while:
What if the creative team behind Wolverine 3 is taking a more creative, looser approach to the Reavers, and might use this as a chance to have Wolverine face off against all of his biggest foes for one final fight? If Essex Corp. is using the blood of various mutants to build the Reavers, could they reincarnate cyborg versions of the greatest enemies Wolverine has faced across the X-Men cinematic universe? Maybe this is just wishful thinking, but we’ve heard small rumblings that Liev Schreiber might be returning as Sabretooth…