One of the lingering questions concerning X-Men: Apocalypse is that of Wolverine’s role, assuming that he has one. Director Bryan Singer is now hinting that Wolverine will probably make an appearance, but also says that fans shouldn’t expect Logan to take center stage.

Singer tells Empire Magazine that the Weapon X program, the organization that gave Wolverine his adamantium bones, will be returning in X-Men: Apocalypse. As for Wolverine himself, Singer says that, as a “central character, he didn’t fit into this particular story.”

So Wolverine won’t be a “central character,” but Singer doesn't say that Wolverine isn’t in the movie at all. Fans may remember that the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past had Wolverine in the clutches of Weapon X, though Mystique had replaced the organization’s leader, William Stryker. We already knew that the actor who plays Stryker, Josh Helman, is returning for X-Men: Apocalypse, but whether he’s actually playing Stryker, or just Mystique pretending to be Stryker, is unknown.

As for the post-Apocalypse future of the X-Men franchise, Singer is on board, but hopes to take a breather before starting the next movie in the series. He says that that leaving the franchise “is not something I think about. But I could not roll into another X-Men movie tomorrow. And I hope not to. I hope to take a break.”

Even so, Singer has a mutant villain in mind for a future feature. “I’d love to use Proteus somehow,” Singer says. “There’s a lot visually you could do with a character like that.”

Proteus is a pretty deep cut, as far as X-Men villains go. While he’s popped up here and there over the course of the last few decades, he’s mostly remembered for his debut story in the late 1970s and early 1980s, early on in Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s seminal X-Men run. In the comics, Proteus is the mutant son of Moira MacTaggert. He has the ability to warp reality, but his powers are so unpredictable and uncontrollable that Moira locks him away at her research facility on Muir Island to keep him, and the world around him, safe. He breaks free and the X-Men are forced to track him down. In one of the most tragic moments of the early era of the X-Men, the innocent and gentle Colossus is forced to use his metallic form to disrupt Proteus’s energy form, killing Moira's son.

As for Singer taking a break, he does have an adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in the works, which could serve as a nice diversion. Meanwhile, between Deadpool 2, Gambit, The Wolverine 2, and The New Mutants, not to mention the Legion and Hellfire TV shows, Fox has plenty of spinoffs to fill the void while Singer is taking some time off.

Check out when X-Men: Apocalypse and other movies are coming out in ComicBook.com's Movie Release Schedule.

via Heroic Hollywood

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