Casting is starting to heat up on director James Mangold's superhero sequel The Wolverine. We reported last week that Will Yun Lee and Brian Tee have signed on to play villains The Silver Samurai and Noboru Mori. Today we have word that Total Recall star Jessica Biel has been offered The Viper role in this superhero sequel.

The character has an intriguing past history with the title character in Marvel's comic book series. At one point she was an ally to Logan, and yet she also blackmailed him into marrying her, in another story line. It isn't known if The Viper will be a friend or foe to Hugh Jackman's Logan yet, or if the actress plans on accepting the role or not.

James Mangold is directing from a screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie and Mark Bomback. The story follows Logan's adventures after the events of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where he travels to Japan to find more information about who he really is.

Production is scheduled to begin in August, with shooting to take place in both Australia and Japan.