‘Wolverine 3’ Casts ‘The Office’ Co-Creator Stephen Merchant
By Angie Han/April 28, 2016 6:00 am EST
Deadline broke news of the Wolverine 3 Stephen Merchant casting. His role is being kept under wraps and we don’t know yet whether he’ll be a good guy or a bad guy. Either way, we’re gonna go ahead and guess that he’s serving as the comic relief (although if this turns out to be a rare dramatic role for the actor, that’d be pretty exciting too). As previously reported, Holbrook will play the main villain and Grant some sort of mad-scientist character.James Mangold is directing Wolverine 3 from a script by David James Kelly. The story is believed to be inspired by the “Old Man Logan” arc from the comics, which follows a now-retired Wolverine on a road trip across a dystopian future. We’ve heard rumors about which other characters from the comics might appear — maybe X-23? — but so far Wolverine and Professor X are the only names we know for sure.
Merchant is a frequent collaborator of Ricky Gervais’, having worked with him on The Office, Extras, The Ricky Gervais Show, and Life’s Too Short. In addition, Merchant recently created and starred in the HBO comedy series Hello Ladies. His feature film credits include Hot Fuzz, The Invention of Lying, Tooth Fairy, Hall Pass, and I Give It a Year.
