'Logan' release date and news: Young actress confirmed for the role of X-23

"Logan" will be Hugh Jackman's third solo movie focused on the character Wolverine. It's been confirmed that young actress Sienna Novikov ("Bad Moms" and "Daddy's Home") will be playing the younger version of Laura Kinney aka X-23.

Omegaunderground.com was the first to speculate on her role as the Wolverine clone, but The Wrap was the one to confirm the site's speculations. Novikov is said to have a background on gymnastics and fencing. These skills could prove to be useful when playing the young mutant.

The movie will reportedly handle a government entity known as "Transigen," a corporation that experiments on young mutants and turns them into killers. Novikov's character, Laura, will be one of the children in the program. Wolverine is said to take her under his wing.

Comic fans will remember X-23 as the female clone of Logan. She was a result of the Weapon X program when they tried to replicate their success in Wolverine; she has the same healing factor and heightened senses that Logan has. She also has two retractable claws on each wrist and one retractable talon on each foot.

The move to introduce X-23 to the franchise may be a way for Fox to replace Wolverine because "Logan" is said to be Jackman's last outing as the character.

In the comics, X-23 was sort of a "daughter" to Logan, and she eventually took up her father's mantle as "Wolverine," even becoming the central character in the comic "All-New Wolverine."

"Logan" will be copying story elements from Mark Millar's "Old Man Logan," and reports are saying that, just like the comic, there will be a rapid decline in mutant births and people will not know the reason why. In Millar's story, all the heroes were defeated and the X-men were disbanded, leaving Logan to live in hiding as a humble farmer.

Will X-23 eventually replace Hugh Jackman's Wolverine?

"Logan" is set to hit theaters March 3, 2017.