Ryan Reynolds Joins Wolverine Cast

The 20th Century Fox project, which kicked off production this month in Australia with South African director Gavin Hood behind the camera, is currently slated for a May 1, 2009, release. The Marvel Comic-based prequel will mark the feature-film debut of Will.i.am, who until now could only be spotted in the soundtrack portion of the credits of recent hits such as Knocked Up and Blades of Glory. Reynolds, who delved into the butt-kicking mutant canon with his role as a former vampire in Blade: Trinity, is currently on the big screen in the romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe alongside Little Miss Sunshine also-ran Abigail Breslin.

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While there's no word yet on which characters the production newcomers will be sinking their claws into, the roles of Sabretooth and William Stryker are already taken by Liev Schreiber and Danny Huston, respectively.

Schreiber was originally rumored to be in talks to play Stryker, the would-be mutant eliminator, but producers apparently preferred him as the even more supervillainous Sabretooth, Wolverine's comparably enhanced rival. Lynn Collins (The Number 23, The Lake House) has also stepped up to play Wolverine's number-one love interest, Silver Fox.