Wolverine 3: Who are The Reavers in Logan?

Marvel Comics fans are all too familiar with the villainous Reavers; however, movie fans who are just now watching the trailer for Logan (aka Wolverine 3) have seen that the film has some very bad men chasing Logan’s new young charge (X-23) – men who have big guns and cybernetic limbs..

For those who are unfamiliar, Logan is going to introduce some new Marvel Comics villains to the X-Men movie universe. But while we wait for visual confirmation of a big bad like Mr. Sinister, we can start by helping newcomers answer the question: Who are The Reavers?

The Comics

In Marvel Comics, The Reavers are cybernetic criminals who formed because of a shared bond: their need for revenge on the X-Men – specifically Weapon X / Wolverine. After attacking the X-Men during their “Outback and Beyond” era of the late ’80s (wherein the X-Men faked their deaths and hid out at an Australian Outback base), The Reavers were later reformed under cybernetic Hellfire Club aristocrat, Donald Pierce, who augmented his own body with cybernetic limbs.

Pierce and the Reavers have popped up to antagonize the X-Men again and again, allying with villains like future Sentinel Bastion, or the mutant-killing fanatics, The Purifiers. Over the course of many battles, Pierce has lost most of his original human form, becoming more and more machine as time goes on.

In the Movie

In the movie, it looks like Donald Pierce and The Reavers have been re-imagined as a standard mercenary force, retaining some of their cybernetic enhancements, just to a much reduced degree than what we see in the comics.

Boyd Holbrook’s Donald Pierce looks to be the biggest change. The comic book version of Pierce is a flamboyant aristocrat; Holbrook’s version looks like a gritty merc killer with a sinister smile. It’s not necessarily a bad change (brief glimpses of action between Wolverine and The Reavers look satisfyingly brutal); however, the Wolverine film franchise has had a particularly bad track record of adapting X-Men villains to the screen. Hopefully, The Reavers and Donald Pierce will be quality foes, and not just more throwaway villains bearing iconic character names.

The Future

…Don’t expect much of one from Pierce and The Reavers. The Logan international trailer clearly demonstrates that Wolverine will be playing for keeps on this one. Pierce and his crew are almost certainly going to get a one-and-done appearance.

MORE: Be sure to get all the lastest on Wolverine 3: Logan:

Logan R-Rated Trailer / Logan Official Trailer / Who Is X-23 in Logan? / SPOILERY Synopsis Revealed? / Possible X-23 Reveal Coming! / Logan Villain Revealed / Who is the Clawed Child? / 5 Things We Want to see in Logan / 5 Things We Won’t see in Logan

Logan hits theaters on March 3, 2017, followed by Deadpool 2 on January 12, 2018. Movie versions of Gambit, New Mutants and X-Force are still being developed.