We all knew (those who have been following along at least) that The Wolverine would feature some World War II flashbacks, but we did not exactly know where in the timeline the latest X-Men movie would take place. Well, now we do courtesy of Empire who nabbed an interview with the film’s director James Mangold who says that his tale will be told sometime after the events of the X-Men trilogy. Furthermore, he states that many of the superhero group’s members are disbanded or gone.
Perhaps more interesting is the reason the film is set up this way, and yes, there is a reason. A central theme to Wolverine will be isolation as Hugh Jackman’s clawed character will deal with his immortality. We have seen things take on the topic before like the Justin Timberlake-led In Time, but this is definitely up a few notches on the totem pole. This also serves to confirm an effort to limit the amount of superheroes in the sub-franchise going forward as X-Men has been known for excessively anchoring its films in the past with gimmick abilities, causing significant problems elsewhere in the script.
Before we heard this, many of us already chalked The Wolverine up as another failed spin-off effort from Fox who has been noticeably off its highs with the series. The unique grain of this new installment will certainly give added reason to suspect that a possible X-Men resurgence could be in the cards, but there will undoubtedly remain an aura of pessimism until release day in large part due to its lackluster predecessor four years before it.
The Wolverine enters theaters nationwide on July 26, 2013.