It's been a mixed year for the X-Men franchise. Though X-Men: First Class was lauded as one of the best movies of the summer by both critics and fans, the movie underperformed domestically, resulting in it having the worst final totals since the first installment back in 2000. Then there's the sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which will simply be titled The Wolverine. While the movie began 2011 on amazing footing, with a script by Christopher McQuarrie and a director in Darren Aronofsky, the Black Swan filmmaker eventually decided to drop out and a devastating earthquake in Japan resulted in the production being delayed.

Since then James Mangold has come on to replace Aronfsky, but there has still been a question mark surrounding when cameras would start to roll. Comments made by star Hugh Jackman suggested that the production would begin in October, while a news story last week suggested that the film would be spending some time in Vancouver in the next few months. It's all speculation until word comes down from Fox, but now new intel over at Deadline says that the making of The Wolverine may not start until 2012.

The website says that the studio was indeed looking to start filming this fall, but now plans may have changed and they may now be targeting a spring 2012 production. Also noteworthy is that Fox may end up having to bail on its plans to film in Japan due to the fact that the country is still recovering. As suggested the news stories above, the movie may move to Canada, though its unclear if they will make the entire movie in the Great White North or if they will try to film in the Far East as well. Also potentially throwing up a roadblock is Tom Hooper's Les Miserables, in which Jackman is set to star as Jean Valjean.

While I'd love to see what Christopher McQuarrie has in store for Logan in Japan, am I the only one who would much rather see them fast-track First Class 2? A sequel couldn't be nearly as bad as X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but why not start from the top of the mountain instead of the bottom?