Richard E. Grant's 'Logan' Villain Revealed

Aside from that spectacular trailer, we know precious little about Logan, the tenth movie in 20th Century Fox's X-Men series and the swan song for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. What we do know has been fed to us via social media, with those involved in the production of the film offering little tidbits here and there.

The latest morsel comes from Mr. Jackman himself, who took to Twitter to share a new look at Richard E. Grant's character. We also have a name for the Logan villain, and you can find out what it is below.

Like previous photos released from the production, the photo Jackman tweeted was shot in stark black and white and offers little beyond the human subject of the image. In this case, all we have is Richard E. Grant, partially illuminated against a nearly pitch-black background. However, Jackman added "Rice. Logan. 3.3.17," and that tells us everything we need to know.

It seems that Grant is playing Dr. Zander Rice, a villain from the X-Men comics and the scientist responsible for creating X-23, a female clone of Wolverine himself. Rice's father worked on the original "Weapon X" program, which gave Logan his adamantium skeleton and claws, but was killed when the amnesiac mutant, full of berserker rage, escaped the facility.

Since it has been confirmed that Dafne Keen is playing Laura Kinney (X-23's actual name) in the film, Grant's role and his importance to the plot has started to come into focus. While Boyd Holbrook's Donald Bierce looks to be the man physical antagonist, the guy leading the hunt for X-23 who didn't count on ticking off Hugh Jackman's veteran mutant superhero, Grant. Dr. Rice will be the guy pulling the strings from the shadows, possibly looking to avenge the death of his father.

While X-Men: Apocalypse was one of this past summer's biggest disappointments (which is quite an honor for the worst summer movie season in recent memory), everything we've seen from Logan so far has looked impressive, showcasing a film that looks to take on a very different tone than the most of the X-Men movies. A great trailer does not a great movie make, but director James Mangold also helmed the exceptional The Wolverine, which sits near the very top (if not on the very top) of Fox's X-Men movies. I feel good about this one.

Logan is set to open on March 3, 2017.