James Mangold has certainly been busy. Earlier this week, he added six new cast members to his upcoming film ‘The Wolverine’ starring Hugh Jackman reprising his role as the iconic mutant. When that announcement was made, I thought the biggest villain that would be found in this sequel would be The Silver Samurai, who will be played by Will Yun Lee, but apparently he won’t be the only big baddie that Logan will have to deal with.
According to Deadline, Jessica Biel has been cast in the role of Viper AKA Madame Hydra. While the villainess is often at odds with the Avengers, she also has a storied history with Wolverine and The Silver Samurai, so it seems that she’d be a good fit in the follow up to ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’. While not originally part of the Miller/Claremont story that the movie is based on, Viper and Wolverine have a mutual mentor who trained them both and made him swear an oath of loyalty to Viper, which the deadly mercenary would take advantage of later on to blackmail Logan into marriage. As Collider points out, the “arc would fit in well with the web of betrayal and heartbreak laid out by the other characters” in the source material.
I think that she can fill the role nicely. The actress can be seen next in the ‘Total Recall’ reboot with Colin Farrell.
Shooting for ‘The Wolverine’ starts in August in Australia and the film is scheduled for release on July 26, 2013.
