Hugh Jackman Intimates That Darren Aronofsky's 'Wolverine 2' Won't Suck Like The Original

"Meaty" & "Thoughtful" Comments Euphemisms For "Not Horrible"

A dark drama set in Japan full of the savagery, violence and code of honor that made the character Wolverine what he is today? There probably isn't a better filmmaker out there for the job. Hugh Jackman, who starred in Aronofsky's psychedelic examination of love, immortality and death in "The Fountain," spoke to Vulture last night about the upcoming film set to shoot in March of next year.

"This is, hopefully for me, going to be out of the box. It’s going to be the best one, I hope," he said, before catching himself and noting, "Well, I would say that, but I really do feel that, and I feel this is going to be very different."

As members of the audience who had our eyeballs seared out by Gavin Hood's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," we sincerely hope so.

We've been worried that 20th Century Fox's desire for control and the subtlety needed for dark meaty dramas are fairly mutually exclusive, but Jackman seems to believe that under the aegis of Aronofsky, they can finally get the franchise's tone right. "This is Wolverine. This is not Popeye. He’s kind of dark. This is a change of pace. Chris McQuarrie, who wrote 'The Usual Suspects,' has written the script, so that’ll give you a good clue. [Aronofsky’s] going to make it fantastic. There’s going to be some meat on the bones. There will be something to think about as you leave the theater, for sure.”

At the end of the day we have little stake in this race, but for the fanboy audiences who had to endure easily the most painful of the "X-Men" films (even including Brett Ratner's misfiring edition), we certainly hope for Jackman's sake he's right. No date has been slated for "Wolverine 2" but we assume a tentpole season 2012 makes a whole lot of sense.