We’ve seen trailers and posters for The Wolverine but now it’s time to get a better look at Hugh Jackman’s character in this newest film in the X-Men series. Released today was a new featurette titled ‘A Ronin Story’.
So Wolverine saves Yashida from the atomic bomb? Sounds good to me. However, doesn’t it look like Yashida is now in the hands of Abstergo Industries and their Animus from Assassin’s Creed?
Not only that but surely I’m not the only World of Warcraft player who saw Wolverine walking through the forest next to a bear and thought ‘if I slowly angle away, maybe I won’t pull aggro on that plague bear.” right?
As The Wolverine gets closer and closer we are treated to teasers, trailers and international trailers. Now we get another, possibly the last one before the movie releases? But this is arguably the best one, even though I still don’t know how I feel about the movie, I am rather intrigued by the movie taking place after X-men: The Last Stand. Apparently they’re trying to make up not only for that piece of crap, but the nigh unforgivable X-men Origins: Wolverine as well. I’d say based on this trailer alone it would appear they have succeeded, but I’ll reserve my final judgment until I see the finished project.
Check out the trailer for yourself:
As you can see there is a very interesting cameo appearance by Famke Janssen as Jean Grey. Apparently the last kill Logan made in The Last Stand continues to haunt him. Now his latest adventure takes him to the heart of Japan (Madripoor?) and against lots and lots of guys with swords, including the Silver Samurai. I’ve not heard whether or not he is a robot of some sort or an actual mutant like in the comics. From the looks of things he appears to be one big sum’bitch. Either way I’ll be making the trek to see the latest outing for Weapon X. It can’t be worse than Origins…
So – Wolverine. One of the greatest comic book characters of all time, and a main stay on the X-Men for over 30 years is finally (hopefully) getting the film treatment that he deserves…or at the very least something to make us forget about the steaming pile of crap that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The other day we showed you some posters and production stills for Hugh Jackman‘s The Wolverine movie, but now we’ve actually got a couple of trailers as well.
The Wolverine is coming and we have got a bevy of information and pics for you to take a look at. The main reason for all this the first trailer is being released on Wednesday and we wanted a place where you can get all of the content online and get all updates to be ready for Wednesday. We have oh so many images from the film, both leaked and released. We got posters and banners, all the latest news and cast information and we hope you all keep an eye out here Wednesday because we’ll have the trailer on our page ready for consumption. We know we got a while until The Wolverine hits theaters on July 26th (in 3D as well mind you) so let’s drop some knowledge and get you guys situated.
The Wolverine Plot
Official Synopsis:
Based on the celebrated comic book arc, this epic action-adventure takes Wolverine, the most iconic character of the X-Men universe, to modern day Japan. Out of his depth in an unknown world he faces his ultimate nemesis in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed. Vulnerable for the first time and pushed to his physical and emotional limits, he confronts not only lethal samurai steel but also his inner struggle against his own immortality, emerging more powerful than we have ever seen him before.
Wolverine Comic:
The celebrated comic book arc mentioned is the comic Wolverine released in 1982 and covers a large period of Wolverine’s origins and his Weapon X days. In the comic, Wolverine’s love Mariko Yashida wound up getting an arranged marriage set up by her father Lord Shingen. Logan travels to Japan to rescue her and troubles ensue with Samurai getting gutted by some Adamantium claws. We will not go much further as not to spoil the plot of the film. However, we are not sure how closely the film will follow this story line. For example, the film story is set after the events of the third X-Men film but the comics have no specific timeline with the rest of the X-Men. The comic is great and the story arc only has 4 issues so if you feel like getting ahead of the curve, pick it up and enjoy.
The Cast of The Wolverine
Wolverine
Hugh Jackman plays Logan/Wolverine: A mutant and member of the X-Men. I don’t feel I need to explain this character too much. In the film, Logan leaves the X-Men to find himself and get away from the devastating losses that took place in X-Men: The Last Stand. On his journey, he falls in love with a woman Mariko Yashida, although she is to be married off by her father. Logan feels he must do something and naturally gets into a middle of a gang war where probably chaos ensues.
Bloody Claws! Rated R
Lord Shingen
Hiroyuki Sanada stars as Shingen Yashida, a character created by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, who is a Yakuza crime boss and antagonist to Wolverine. Lord Shingen will be one of the main villains in this film as a father to both Silver Samurai and Logan’s love interest that figures into Wolverine’s conflicts. Lord Shingen arranges his daughter Mariko Yashida to marry another crime boss to settle debts.
Shingen
Mariko Yashida
Tao Okamoto plays Mariko Yashida, the daughter of Shingen and one-time fiancee to Wolverine. K.I.S.S.I.N.G. as Logan’s love interest in this film Mariko is the main cause for conflict within the story. Logan falls in love with her but her father arranges a marriage to honor his clans’ debt. Logan goes to rescue her from an abusive husband but the clans obviously don’t like this and violence ensues. This plot could be way off but it is the basic layout of the comic arc the film is based off so I would be surprised if it wasn’t close to this.
Mariko
Yukio
Rila Fukushima stars as Yukio, one of the deadliest assassins in Shingen’s clan. We think she will be an amazing character to watch out for. In the comics, she is a heroine but is described here almost on the other side. Yukio is an occasional thief by profession, as well as a ronin, a masterless samurai. Yukio has been portrayed as a free spirit with an almost careless disregard for personal danger. While she is highly skilled in the martial arts, Yukio is not a mutant and possesses no super powers. Unless being a badass is a mutant power.
Yukio
The Silver Samurai
Will Yun Lee plays Kenuichio Harada, more commonly known as the Silver Samurai, who possesses an electrified suit of samurai armor and is the illegitimate son of the crime lord Shingen. The first Silver Samurai was a mutant with the ability to generate a tachyon field (some kind of heat energy), with which he can surround anything. He commonly used this power on his sword, enabling it to cut through nearly anything, except adamantium, hence the fun with Wolverine. From what we have gathered, the Silver Samurai will be working for the crime boss Shingen Yashida as a bodyguard. In the comics, he has worked for Viper so speaking of…
Silver Samurai
Viper
Svetlana Khodchenkova plays Viper, a one-time peer of Wolverine’s as well as an enemy. Viper, also known as Madame Hydra, should be an interesting character to watch. She was not in the comic arc but she does have affiliations with both the Silver Samurai and Wolverine in other comics. She is certainly a villain but it remains to be seen how she fits into this film. Not sure how I feel about the costume though, it doesn’t really look anything like the original other than the color.
Viper
Teaser
Below is a short GIF released by director James Mangold to give a small teaser to the trailer. It looks very interesting and I am certainly pumped to see the trailer. Are you teased?
Just thought I would devote a part of this round up to point out how to make a good poster and how to make a terrible poster. Below is a great example of a trailer for this film, its got that brilliant hand drawn Japanese style painting which makes Wolverine look cool and strong whilst showing off the claws.
Next however is one of the worst posters I have ever seen for large budget film. It’s just awful! I have seen better Photoshop jobs from my 7 year old cousins (spoiler alert: they’re not good). What is this! Loads of Ninjas with quick cut and paste of an angry Wolverine. To be honest, I am not even sure Ninjas are involved in this story as the main opposition is from Samurai clans. Please look and laugh.
With that, we’ll leave you with a bunch of production stills from the set as well as other photos we have gathered. And how about a 20 second trailer tease too? Hopefully this piques your interest and gets you excited for Wednesday when we finally get to see The Wolverine in action!
So remember all of the hullabaloo the other day about Fox giving up Daredevil or possibly some Fantastic Four characters? (If not, then read the article HERE.) Well Fox made their move and it was to simply…. Do nothing with Daredevil. Deadline, Variety and IGN have all reported that Fox fully intends to do nothing with a Daredevil movie by the October 10th deadline. Apparently they don’t feel that Daredevil is necessary when they have the full stable of X-men characters and the Fantastic Four. I have to say it at least seems like Fox is now heading in the right direction since X-men: First Class was released. Now it even seems like they may be having the good ole’ canucklehead set down the right path in the upcoming The Wolverine. Hugh Jackman has been out promoting the film as a standalone story, completely separate from Wolverine: Origins. Hey, if Logan can have amnesia and forget the horrible events of the first movie then we sure as hell can… and will if I have anything to say about it.
I’m definitely glad that Daredevil is heading back to the care of Marvel Studios. They’ve been producing hits left and right with their characters since the first Iron Man movie came out and have a lot of faith that they’ll continue the tradition with the Man Without Fear. There is no word as of yet whether or not Joe Carnahan will still get a shot at directing the movie, but I would imagine that Marvel has it’s own ideas about who they’ll want to use. Personally I think that Carnahan had the right vision for Daredevil, wanting the movie to be in the vein of a 70’s crime thriller and I hope they at least sit down and talk with the guy.
Another interesting tidbit would be that Fox retains the rights to the character Elektra who, let’s face it, plays a pretty big part in the comic world of Daredevil. I’m thinking they can either have a renamed character similar to her in the movie (or future movies) or use another dangerous femme fatale who has spent a lot of time with Matt Murdock in the superhero world and the bedroom; Black Widow. As you may or may not know, in the comic books the pair dated at one point and I think it could be perfect for a movie crossover for the two characters. Hell, Daredevil was more recently on an Avengers team in the comic world so it may not be out of the realm of possibility to have him in the Avengers 2. It probably wouldn’t happen, but unlike Fox, Marvel now has all of the time in the world to make their Daredevil movie. And this true believer has all of the confidence in the world that they can do it right.
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Grizzly Bomb 