ALL ARGUMENTS INVALID.
We’ve suggested The Wolverine should be titled Wolverine 1: This Is The First One, There Weren’t Any Others Seriously (And Hugh Jackman Is Shirtless For 90 Minutes). Fox and director James Mangold are already delivering on the shirtless Hugh Jackman part. (Hellooo, Google search traffic.) Now our reasonable plea to forget the first movie — what first movie? — seems to have been answered. Hugh Jackman himself explained to Total Film how much The Wolverine (opening July 26th, 2013) differs from that other movie which shall not be named:
We’ve deliberately not called it Wolverine 2 because we want it to be placed and feel like a standalone picture. With an all-new cast and setting it in Japan, it’s going to give us a whole new visual aesthetic. The approach to character means we won’t be overloaded with mutants and teams and the like, so it’ll be more character-based. I think in many ways it will feel like a completely different X-Men film. [Total Film via Coming Soon]
Brett Ratner just shed a single tear at the possibility that something could ever be “overloaded with mutants”. Also shedding a single tear was a certain mutant who loves all Wolverine movies equally:
[Pictures via Dlisted and Final Ellipsis.]