By After the first sexy teaser image, this new image (courtesy of Empire) has Wolvie sporting some bone claws. Which admittedly might have been the only good thing Origins had going for it other than Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. On top of the image, Empire has gotten a few choice quotes from director James Mangold about the new direction of the film:
Where this film sits in the universe of the films is after them all. Jean Grey is gone, most of the X-Men are disbanded or gone, so there’s a tremendous sense of isolation for him.
Wait? That’s great news! Weird Jean Grey shout out though since there are rumors that Famke Janssen (Jean Grey in the films) visited the set of The Wolverine and filmed a cameo. Maybe she’s a fever dream or hallucination? Nevertheless, it’s good to a get a film that’s separated from all of that nonsense. Without any ties, The Wolverine is free to go wild and deliver a great “Japanese noir with tentpole action.” Luckily, Mangold feels the same way:
That’s something that for me was very important, that I land in a very specific place in his timeline. I wanted to be able to tell the story without the burden of handing it off to a film that already exists and having to conform to it. The ideas of immortality reign very heavily in this story and the burden of immortality weighs heavily on Logan. For me that’s such an interesting part of Logan’s character that is nearly impossible to explore if you have a team movie.
So rest assured everyone, you can breathe easier now. The Wolverine is not a prequel bogged down by awkward continuity while wedged somewhere in between the mess of First Class, Days of Future Past, and Origins: Wolverine. It’s going to set a new franchise in motion and potentially be frickin’ awesome.
[via Empire]