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While the superhero genre is all the rage at the moment, there’s one actor in particular who’s been doing this for years, and that’s Hugh Jackman. The Australian performer was a newcomer when he got the call as a last-minute replacement for Dougray Scott on Bryan Singer’s groundbreaking 2000 film X-Men, and he’s since solidified himself as the iconic Wolverine.


However, the 47-year-old is now ready to hang up the claws for good as the X-Men franchise continues barreling forward, but not before one last go-around as the character in Wolverine 3. Jackman spent plenty of care and time ensuring that this last Wolverine movie was up to snuff, bringing The Wolverine helmer James Mangold back to direct, and while folks are mighty excited to see how Jackman wraps this role up, we just learned some very exciting news: Wolverine 3 has already begun filming!

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Image via 20th Century Fox

Collider’s own Steve Weintraub caught up with producer Simon Kinberg at the press day for X-Men: Apocalypse in London, and Kinberg revealed that Wolverine 3 has indeed already begun filming, going on to tease that we’re in for quite a treat:

“It’s a very radical, bold, different Wolverine than you’ve ever seen in any of these movies.”

While Kinberg wouldn’t go so far as confirming that Patrick Stewart is co-starring in the movie, he did confirm that it will be R-rated and teased the setting and tone:

“I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say about that. I will agree with you that Patrick Stewart was rumored to be a part of that film. It takes place in the future, and as you and others have reported, it is an R-rated movie. It’s violent, it’s kind of like a western in its tone. It’s just a very cool, different film.”

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Image via 20th Century Fox

We heard rumors earlier this year that 20th Century Fox was considering making Wolverine 3 rated R, no doubt emboldened by the immense success of Deadpool even though this R-rated Wolverine was in the works long before that film was released, and now it appears that the picture is indeed envisioned as a fully R-rated superhero movie. That’s kind of huge. Mangold shot an R-rated version of The Wolverine but also shot alternate takes to make sure they had the option of going PG-13 if they wanted to—which they did. But with Wolverine 3, the intention from the get-go is R-rated, so we'll be getting the full, unfiltered creative vision when the finished film hits theaters.

Moreover, Kinberg also reveals the picture takes place in the future. While that seems like an obvious bit of information, the new post-Days of Future Past timeline has left much up in the air, so it’ll be interesting to see just exactly how far into the future Wolverine 3 takes place.

Fox will no doubt cast a new Wolverine somewhere down the line, as this is still a multi-billion dollar franchise after all, but boy is it going to be hard to fill Jackman’s shoes. At least we can rest assured that the actor is putting everything he’s got into making sure that his final outing as the character will be as iconic as his performance.

The untitled Wolverine film also stars Boyd Holbrook as the principal villain, as well as Richard E. Grant, Stephen Merchant, and Eriq Lasalle and opens in theaters on March 3, 2017. Look for much more from Steve’s X-Men: Apocalypse interviews on Collider soon.

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Image via Hugh Jackman

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Image via 20th Century Fox
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Image via 20th Century Fox
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Image via 20th Century Fox