Ryan Reynolds and will.i.am join Wolverine
February 20, 2008

The cast for X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been growing by the day with three new people already attached to the quickly in production Twentieth Century Fox film. Ryan Reynolds, will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas, and Friday Night Lights regular Taylor Kitsch have joined the Hugh Jackman vehicle, which will be a spin-off of the huge hit X-Men franchise. Reynolds will play Deadpool, a part he has been rumored for FOR YEARS, will.i.am will play John Wraith, and Kitsch will play Gambit. Liev Schreiber was already cast as Victor Creed/Sabretooth, Danny Huston as Col. William Stryker, and Lynn Collins as Kayla Silver Fox. Hugh Jackman will reprise his role in the film being shot by Gavin Hood (Rendition) in New Zealand, Australia, and New Orleans with an already scheduled release date of May 1st, 2009.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (bulky title, don't ya think?) was written by David Benioff (Troy) and will focus on the origins of the Wolverine character and even introduce mutants not seen before in the X-Men franchise, like Deadpool. Reynolds had been looking at a possible Deadpool movie for a long time and are already considering spinning him off of the spin-off if his character is a hit. They've also long-wanted to add Gambit to the franchise but couldn't get him enough screen time in the other X-Men flicks. Gambit rules. Finally, will.i.am will play the lesser-known Wraith, who was a teleporting mutant who was also a test subject of the Weapon X program that created Wolverine and others.

This is will.i.am's first film role and it's a big one. It's a relatively young career for Taylor Kitsch too, who plays Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights and appeared in John Tucker Must Die, Snakes on a Plane, and The Covenant. Kitsch has also finished shooting Gospel Hill with Adam Baldwin, Angela Bassett, Danny Glover, RZA, and Julia Stiles. Ryan Reynolds earned the best reviews of his career in Definitely, Maybe, which is in theaters right now and has finished shooting Fireflies in the Garden with Julia Roberts, Willem Dafoe, and Emily Watson, and Adventureland with Kristen Stewart, Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig.

(Source: Variety, IMDB)

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