Total Recall (2012), Blade II and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) star Jessica Biel has signed on to play Viper, also known as Madame Hydra, in James Mangold and Hugh Jackman’s The Wolverine.
In the comic-book, the Hungarian-born Viper was the head of an underworld empire in the fictional South East Asian city of Madripoor – a sort of analogue for Singapore – who manipulated Logan into marrying her, and then fighting for her against her criminal rivals.
All of this, though, comes from a completely different storyline to the one director James Mangold (3:10 To Yuma) is drawing on for The Wolverine, one written a decade later, albeit by the same author, Chris Claremont. How Viper will be incorporated into the Japanese setting of The Wolverine remains to be seen, as does her Hydra connection, as that secret society’s only movie outing to date has been in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger.
In the comics, Viper/Madame Hydra has a relationship with Captain America’s nemesis the Red Skull, obviously the property of Marvel Studios in the great Marvel/Fox movie divorce, and presumably he took the multi-headed kids when he moved out.
