Wolverine 3: Richard E Grant officially joins Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart for sequel

British actor Richard E. Grant has joined the growing cast of the second Wolverine sequel. The 58-year-old will appear alongside Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook and of course Hugh Jackman, in the James Mangold-directed instalment.

As first announced by The Hollywood Reporter, Grant will be playing "a villainous mad scientist type." Holbrook will also be playing one of the film's antagonists, while Stewart and Jackman will be reprising their roles as Charles Xavier/Professor X and Logan/Wolverine respectively.

Despite the film planning to begin shooting next month, plot details remain unknown. According to Den Of Geek however, the instalment might be looking to base the movie on Old Man Logan, a series straight from the Marvel comics.

It tells the story of Wolverine as the last surviving member of the X-Men in a dystopian world where he has vowed to never use his claws again. However, the comics go heavy on the Avengers character references, as well as featuring appearances from Hawkeye and Daredevil's Kingpin, so screenwriters Michael Green and David James Kelly would likely have to pen a loose retelling of the events since they would be forced to stay away from these nods due to rights issues with Marvel Studios.

Earlier this week, it was also heavily rumoured that Sabretooth, Wolverine's half-brother in the 2009 Origins movie and X-23, a female clone of Wolverine in the comics, might also appear in the instalment. The idea being that X-23 could then potentially take over from Wolverine in ongoing movies.

With Wolverine 3 not scheduled to reach either UK or US cinemas until March 2017, Grant will next appear in hugely-popular HBO series Game Of Thrones, although his role in the fantasy is yet to be revealed. Best known for his work in movies such as Withnail & I and Dracula, he was seen most recently in television series Downton Abbey and Jekyll & Hyde.

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