There’s been a lot of rumours surrounding just who Richard E. Grant’s “mad scientist” villain in Logan could possibly be, ever since he was first cast. But now we know just who he’ll be playing in the movie, and while it’s a comic character, it’s not who you think it is.
Another black-and-white teaser image from the film has been released on its Instagram account, this time of a dimly lit Grant giving his best villainous sneer. He pretty much just looks like Richard E. Grant, so it already tells us that he doesn’t appear to be Mr Sinister, as was heavily rumoured. But the post does give us a single world that gives us a big clue about Grant’s role.
“Rice” seems to in fact be Doctor Zander Rice, who, in the comics, is a major part of X-23’s origins. Alongside Laura’s mother and Doctor Martin Sutter, Rice was part of the team that sought to revive the Weapon X program that eventually lead to the creation of Laura as a female clone of Wolverine. Rice was a cruel man, who first forced Laura’s mother to carry the clone to term, before exposing Laura to brutal experiments in order to mould her into a willing assassin.
Eventually, X-23 killed Rice when she escaped the facility where she’d spent much of her young life, but it appears Rice could have a larger role to play in her story when it comes to Logan.