Wolverine should have been better. Maybe the sequel will be. Until today there was no reason to believe this was a possibility, the whole X-Men franchise was turned into a creatively bankrupt cash grab years ago by Fox, and they’ve shown no sign of being interested in doing anything good with it since. Until tonight, that is, when they picked Darren Aronofsky as the director of Wolverine 2.

Deadline says 20th Century Fox has entered negotiations with the Black Swan director to give him the Wolverine sequel directing job. He was rumored to be on the list of potential candidates, but nobody took it seriously. This is Darren Aronofsky after all, a filmmaker whose resume has been almost wholly dedicated to crafting completely original, challenging, R-rated films of his own devising. This is the man who made The Fountain, The Wrestler, and Requiem for a Dream. He’s long avoided doing superhero films of any kind, despite a lot of rumoring, and to think that he’d step in not only to do a superhero film but the second film in a superhero franchise widely considered to be an utter disaster seems almost impossible. But if they’re actually in negotiations with him, then this seems to be happening.

Aronofsky’s name has been mentioned for nearly every superhero directing job on the planet for years, and till now it’s never amounted to anything. He was supposed to reboot Batman, before Christopher Nolan, and that went nowhere. He was rumored for the Superman directing job, which yesterday went to Zack Snyder. Either of those would seem far more suited to his talents. But somehow, he’s doing Wolverine instead.

Back when this rumor first started circulating, I said this was a no brainer for Fox. If you can get Darren Aronofsky, you take Darren Aronofsky. He has a Dark Knight level superhero movie in him somewhere, and directors capable of that, are incredibly rare. I just don’t see what’s in it for him, other than some lingering affection for Hugh Jackman whom he worked with on The Fountain. But if they’re actually in negotiations, then that implies Aronofsky is as on board with this as Fox is. We’ll keep you apprised as they work out the details.