WOW! It looks like next year's X-Men movie will be a testosterone-laced studfest. X-Men: Origins-- Wolverine is filming right now in New Zealand and Australia with one of Jack Manly faves Hugh Jackman reprising his role as the muscular adamantium-clawed mutant.  As if Hugh Jackman wasn't enough to make you excited, we have the scoop on some hunky additions to the cast.

 Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds, Danny Huston, Taylor Kitsch, will. i. am, and Lynne Collins all have joined the cast of this upcoming 20th Century Fox blockbuster which looks like it's really going to energize the X-Men franchise. This impressive cast will be playing characters familiar to fans of Marvel Comics' highly successful X-Men 
series of comic books and graphic novels. As the title implies, X-Men: Origins-- Wolverine will be a prequel tracing the history of the character before his introduction in the original X-Men film from 2000.

 Here's a rundown of the cast and the characters they'll be portraying. 

  Hugh Jackman plays Wolverine (also known as Logan) who possesses a mutant healing factor and whose mysterious past was touched upon in the X-Men movies.

  Liev Schreiber (Tony Award® winning film and TV actor) plays Victor Creed, a mutant with bestial superhuman powers and has a complex relationship with Wolverine. Creed is fated to become Sabretooth who joins with Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (as seen in the X-Men movies).  A little trivia here: This film reunites Schreiber and Jackman who starred opposite Meg Ryan in Kate and Leopold).
                              
                                                           Liev Schreiber plays Victor Creed (Sabretooth)

  Danny Huston (21 Grams, The Kingdom) will be playing Col. William Stryker, the mastermind behind the top-secret and ominous Weapon X program which is an essential element of the Wolverine mythos. This character first appeared on film in the second film in the series X-Men: X-Men United. Huston is the son of famed director John Huston and the half-brother of Oscar® winner Angelica Huston. Trivia: In the comics he was a fantatical preacher.
                                  
                                                         Danny Huston plays the vilain known as Stryker

  Ryan Reynolds (Definitely Maybe) is playing Deadpool, a wise-cracking mercenary who volunteered to be a part of part of the Weapon X program and was later cured of cancer by an implementation of Wolverine's regenerative powers. But the cure left him disfigured and mentally unstable. Also known as Wade Wilson, Deadpool has been both villain and anti-hero in comics. Trivia: Reynolds has often been mentioned as a casting choice in another super-hero film, The Flash.
                         
                                         Ryan Reynolds plays the mercenary known as Deadpool

 Taylor Kitsch (TV's Friday Night Lights) is Remy LeBeau  also known as Gambit, one of the most popular characters in the X-Men pantheon.  New Orleans born Gambit is a thief and a self-described ladies man who has the ability to manipulate kinetic energy and is skilled in card-throwing and martial arts. Trivia: In the comics he's 
romantically linked with Rogue.

                    
                                    
                        Taylor Kitsch is perfectly cast as Gambit --so perfect he gets TWO pics

  will. i. am (Blackeyed Peas) is set to play Wraith, an ally of Wolverine and who also came from the Weapon X program. In the comics he's also known as John Wraith, with the ability to seemingly appear and disappear at will. 
Also has some kind of heling factor. Trivia: in comics he was a partner of Sabretooth.
                   
                                                                       John Wraith and his portrayer will. i. am

 Lynne Collins (The Number 23) will be portraying Kayla Silverfox, Wolverine's love interest and holder of secrets to his destiny. In the comics, the character was also part of the Weapon X program and given a weaker strain of the mutant-healing factor. In the comics she was shown to be a member of Team X (a CIA covert ops group).
                                   
                                             Lynne Collins is femme fatale Silverfox


  X-Men: Origins--Wolverine is directed by Gavin Hood whose work includes the 2006 Oscar® winning Foreign Language Film Totsi and Rendition. The script is by David Benioff (The Kite Runner, Troy)

  As comic fans we at Jack Manly can't wait to see this one since it looks like it's going to be faithful to the spirit of the comics. And as X-Men comic fans can attest, they are very, very particular when it comes to how their mutant characters are treated.