With X-Men: Days of Future Past reportedly heading for the theaters with its time-travel themes intact, many fans have speculated to what extent The Wolverine would be used to bridge the gap between the events of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and any of the various other X-Men films in which star Hugh Jackman has appeared.The answer, apparently, is none at all. Jackman told Total Film in a new interview currently on newsstands that the film will stand on its own–essentially like a little mini Christopher Nolan trilogy, that just happens to have the same star as the previously-existing films.”We’ve deliberately not called it ‘Wolverine 2’ because we want it to be placed and feel like a standalone picture,” he said. “With an all-new cast and setting it in Japan, it’s going to give us a whole new visual aesthetic.”This wouldn’t be particularly noteworthy if it were a comic book, of course–but in the movies, it’s generally assumed that any movie starring the same actor is all part of the same overall continuity and X-fans have gotten pretty worked up already about the ways in which X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: First Class didn’t seem to fit with the first three X-Men films. To discover that Fox may intentionally be developing films that have only a tenuous link to existing continuity is an intriguing prospect–and one that’s likely to be controversial.Jackman added, “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.”This is probably the most common-sense approach to The Wolverine. It’s based on fan- and critic-favorite comic books that nevertheless don’t really tie in easily to the larger X-Men story, and so to set it up as a film that stands on its own merits and has to succeed or fail without really being considered as part of the larger X-tapestry is probably the best way to keep it true to its source material.
