Is X-23 Going To Be In Wolverine 3?

It's been widely publicized that Wolverine 3 will be Hugh Jackman's last appearance as the popular X-Man, Wolverine.  So how does 20th Century Fox plan on replacing him?  If they try to recast the role, the public outcry would be immediate.  The best thing to do is introduce a new X-Man that the fans can enjoy, give that character some of the same traits as Logan, and hope that the fans take to them.  But who do you use?  It seems that 20th Century Fox might have already made that decision...

A casting call has recently been sent out looking for "Caucasian, Hispanic, and Asian looking females varying from 4' - 4' 11" as stand-ins, as well as girls of the same ethnicity, but between 6 -13 at around the same heights".  Although the identity of who these stand-ins are for has been kept quiet, Superherohype is reporting that they are for X-23.  This will be the first time that X-23 has appeared in the X-men's cinematic universe.

X-23 (a.k.a. Laura Kinney) was created by Craig Kyle for the animated series X-Men: Evolution.  Then, in 2004, she made her way over to the comic book side of Marvel, appearing in two six-issue miniseries and then went on to become a member of both the X-Men and X-Force groups.  X-23 is a clone of Wolverine, created by the Weapon X program.  As you have probably already guessed from her name, she was the 23rd attempt at cloning Wolverine, the previous 22 attempts ended in failure.  Similar to Wolverine, she has a mutant healing ability and her skeleton has also been laced with adamantium.  Like her "father" she has retractable claws on each hand.  While Wolverine has three claws on each hand, X-23 only has two, but she has a third claw that comes out of each foot.  After the "Death of Wolverine" comic book story ended, X-23 took up the mantle of her "father" and is the current comic book Wolverine.

If X-23 does figure into the Wolverine 3, it is unclear what her role will be.  She never appeared in the comic book story "Old Man Logan," which the movie is supposed to be roughly based on.  I say "roughly" because the comic book featured appearances by Red Skull, Hawkeye, Hulk, Doctor Doom, and the daughter of Peter Parker.  It even mentioned Captain America's "Super Serum," all of which are properties that 20th Century Fox doesn't own.  Whatever her role is going to be, I'm looking forward to seeing her in action.