It's been made clear for some time that the upcoming The Wolverine is not a sequel as such to the disappointing X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But it does beg the question just where does it fit into the timeline of the established X-Men cinematic universe. The signs seemed to be point to it at least being a continuation of the story of Origins, given how it ties into the post-credits sequence from that film.
In a recent interview with Empire, director James Mangold has cleared matters up. “Where this film sits in the universe of the films is after them all. Jean Grey is gone, most of the X-Men are disbanded or gone, so there's a tremendous sense of isolation for him.”
He continued by stating that there would be prequel elements in the form of flashbacks. “That's something that for me was very important, that I land in a very specific place in his timeline. I wanted to be able to tell the story without the burden of handling it off to a film that already exists and having to conform to it. The ideas of immortality reign very heavily in this story and the burden of immortality weighs heavy on Logan. For me that's such an interesting part of Logan's character that is nearly impossible to explore if you have a kind of league or team movie.”
Mangold also offers up a rather fantastic description of the films genre: “Japanese noir picture with tentpole action in it”
More on The Wolverine when we get it. You can read the full story at Empire.
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