Twentieth Century Fox brought back Bryan Singer, director of the first two X-Men films, to help develop X-Men: First Class in an effort to course correct the lucrative mutant superhero franchise which saw two non-Singer films in a row score poorly among critics. First Class succeeded and was critically acclaimed, earning itself a sequel that Singer is about to begin shooting.
With the first franchise spinoff, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, suffering similar problems as X-Men: The Last Stand, the studio and star Hugh Jackman wanted to do something entirely different for their second outing. After a few hurdles, including a director change, we find ourselves itching closer to the summer movie season where the standalone story The Wolverine will attempt to holds its ground against stiff competition in Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3 and Warner Bros.’ Man of Steel.
By all accounts, everyone involved with the production of The Wolverine knows and understands what’s not only important in telling a story about the Adamantium augmented, hot tempered X-Men hero, but the realize what went wrong with the origins tale from 2009.
Never has Fox promoted a trailer for an X-Men film – which in itself is a promotion – as much as they have for The Wolverine. The week began late Sunday evening with new stills and new posters, followed by an unheard of 6-second sizzle reel which director James Mangold dubbed a “tweaser.” This was followed up by a larger, 20-second teaser trailer and a pair of awesome motion posters, all leading to today, for the full trailer release.
The trailer picks up where the teasers left off, showing more of Logan and his partner Yukio in action, carefully edited around other scenes of a prison camp and Logan seemingly losing his abilities. We now know how these scenes factor into the storyline (and timeline), but there are still some mysteries. The first official image of Viper did feature her with Logan in restraints (still don’t know what that’s about), while we have yet to get a full look at the villain, Silver Samurai. James Mangold also told EW that Viper “likes to play with toxins,” and that scene of her seemingly ripping her own face off certainly raises some questions (it reminds one of the character “Husk” from the comics).
Outside of one poorly photoshopped poster, everything we’ve seen looks exciting, action-packed, and as promised, full of beserker rage. But most viewers were high on the trailers for X-Men Origins: Wolverine as well. Did The Wolverine trailer meet your expectations?
The Wolverine is directed by James Mangold off of Mark Bomback and Christopher McQuarrie’s screenplay. It stars Hugh Jackman, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Will Yun Lee, Brian Tee, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Rila Fukushima.
The Wolverine hits theaters July 26, 2013.
X-Men: Days of Future Past hits theaters on July 18th, 2014.
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