Out of all the casting decisions made so far for Logan – or Wolverine 3, for those of you who don’t keep up with the news – the question of who Stephen Merchant is playing has been one of the most intriguing. As it turns out, the answer was staring at us in the face all along – or at least it was if you happen to have seen X-Men: Apocalypse (where he was played by Tómas Lemarquis(, as it turns out that he will be playing an older (but probably not wiser) Caliban.
Possessing the power to track and search for other mutants, his inclusion could make sense in a roundabout kind of way. Bearing in mind some of the images we’ve seen from Logan so far (specifically the ‘Where Are All The Mutants?’ one), we’re going to assume that he’s either in league with the villainous Reavers (led by Boyd Holbrook’s Donald Pierce) or he’s being forced to work for them in order to track down other mutants.
If it’s keeping in line with his portrayal in X-Men Apocalypse (which, in fairness, the X-Men films haven’t exactly set much stock by doing in the past – look how different the various incarnations of characters like Sabretooth, Emma Frost, Psylocke and Mystique turned out to be), then it could be more likely that he’s working with them voluntarily. In that film he was a mercenary underbroker of sorts, so maybe he’s swapped one career for another.
Anyway, here’s an Instagram post from Merchant and a tweet from director James Mangold that gives you an idea of what Caliban will look like:
Merchant joins a cast that already includes Hugh Jackman, Boyd Holbrook, Richard E Grant, Elizabeth Rodriguez and Eriq La Salle.
Logan will be released in cinemas on 3 March 2017. You can download The 25 Greatest Marvel Comics Ever digital edition from GreatDigitalMags.com now. For more news about the latest movies, pick up the new issue of SciFiNow.
