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After X-Men: Origins: Wolverine grossed a sizable $87m in the U.S. in its opening weekend, 20th Century Fox has moved quickly to greenlight a sequel.

Variety reports that the studio, along with Hugh Jackman and Seed Productions, has begun to plan the follow-up, although a writer has yet to be hired.

As expected, it will focus on the Japanese-set storyline that Jackman has been angling for in recent interviews, where his character – in an effort to control his bestial ways – trains in the way of the samurai, and also falls in love with the daughter of a Yakuza crime lord.

Whilst speaking to MTV, Jackman said he'd already been talking to writers about Wolverine 2, and has said that he's "a big fan of the Japanese saga in the comic book."

He went on: "There are so many areas of that Japanese story. I love the idea of this kind of anarchic character, the outsider, being in this world -- I can see it aesthetically, too -- full of honour and tradition and customs and someone who's really anti-all of that, and trying to negotiate his way. The idea of the samurai, too -- and the tradition there. It's really great. In the comic book he gets his ass kicked by a couple of samurai -- not even mutants. He's shocked by that at first."

Jackman also hinted at another interesting element of this particular plot: "There's also a great, very intricate story there with Mariko. And so many cool ways we could go."

However, it seemed to be the intention that, Wolverine can also serve as a straight prequel to the first X-Men: "It was also another one of my goals that you could see the end of this movie parlaying straight into X-Men, finding that guy in the bar, fighting, drinking, with not much recollection of what's going on."