Those of you who were disappointed by the tone of 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” will be happy to hear what director James Mangold has to say about the upcoming “The Wolverine.”
Some promising new tidbits about the new film, featuring the return of Oscar nominee Hugh Jackman as the ornery mutant, have recently been revealed.
Mangold (“Walk the Line”) talked to MTV about the film, its Japanese setting and the new tone that he, Jackman and writers Scott Frank, Marl Bomback and Christopher McQuarrie have created for the long-running character, acknowledging that the film is a reboot of sorts.
“The wonderful opportunity for me with this film is that 90 percent of it takes place in Japan,” he explained, “and even though other elements remain constant from the other pictures, namely Hugh Jackman, we kind of got our chance to reboot the tone and go a little darker and a little deeper than they”ve gone before with this character.”
“The Wolverine” is inspired by the popular 1982 comic book series by Chris Claremont and “Sin City” creator Frank Miller, in which the hero leaves his X-Men compatriots for adventure, romance and ninja battles in Japan.
Mangold and his writers have fully embraced the story’s setting. “There is a significant amount of Japanese spoken in the movie, and the cast is almost entirely Japanese,” he revealed. “So there is this wonderful sense of cross-pollination between a very Western character and a far Eastern culture, and I think it”s very cool and something we haven”t seen so far.”
He also promises that Wolverine will be seen in full-on “berserker rage” mode, and the bone-crunching action will be plentiful.
Meanwhile, Jackman will also be seen as Wolverine in the upcoming “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” which will unite the mutants of Bryan Singer’s “X-Men” trilogy with their ’60s counterparts as seen in “X-Men: First Class.”
Mangold also hinted that the long-awaited trailer (or at least “peek or two”) is coming soon.
“The Wolverine” opens July 26.