Stephen Merchant is best known for his comedy roles in films such as Hot Fuzz and Hall Pass, as well as being the co-writer of the original British version of The Office. Merchant will soon be taking on a darker role as sewer-dwelling mutant Caliban in the upcoming third Wolverine movie Logan. Director James Mangold has tweeted a first image of the actor in character--check it out below:
This will actually be the second time in a year that Caliban has appeared in a movie within the X-Men universe. He featured in this summer's X-Men: Apocalypse, played by Tómas Lemarquis.
Logan will be Hugh Jackman's last time playing Wolverine, and the movie will also see Patrick Stewart return to the role of Professor X. Jackman recently hinted that the movie would take a different approach to its predecessors. "Basically it's going to be different. Very different in tone and hopefully to anything we've done," he told ET Online.
The notes contained in a page of script that Mangold tweeted earlier this month certainly suggest something more hard-hitting than the previous Wolverine movies. "If you're on the make for a hyper choreographed, gravity defying, city-block destroying, CG f**kathon, this ain't your movie," they state. "In this flick, people will get hurt or killed when s**t falls on them."
A first poster for the movie was revealed a few weeks ago--check it out here.
Logan hits theaters on March 3, 2017.
Update
Hugh Jackman tweeted this image of Caliban as well.
Caliban pic.twitter.com/s0HQPsCB4X
— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) October 18, 2016