Wolverine’s solo movie has a release date. Fox has it scheduled for a May 1, 2009 release. Now they just have to make it.

Gavin Hood (Rendition) is set to direct a script by David Benioff (The 25h Hour) and Hugh Jackman will reprise the role he started in the X-Men movies. That’s kind of a given, because without Jackman there is no movie. At this point, fans just aren’t going to accept anyone else going “snikt”.

What’s surprising is that Variety says it’ll be less of a solo film than some had believed. They report that the movie will feature many other mutants as well. Some will be brought over from the X-Men films with him, while others will be entirely new to the screen. This will however, be about Wolverine’s early years. Their report says Live Schreiber is in talks to take on the role of a younger William Striker, the character played by Brian Cox in X-Men 2.

So, if this is a movie about Wolverine’s early years, it limits the other mutant possibilities. Could we end up seeing Alpha Flight maybe? And who from the X-Men movies will carry over? If you follow the movie’s continuity, Wolverine meets all of the X-Men for the first time in the first movie, and they wouldn’t be present in the past. If they follow the comic’s continuity… perhaps we’ll end up seeing a proper version of his arch-nemesis Sabretooth? Just speculating here.

What we do know is that the movie will explore Wolverine’s past, whatever they decide that is. Variety describes it as “violent and romantic” and says we’ll see his relationship with Victor Creed and the Weapon X program which gave him is Adamantium skeleton.