Director James Mangold Sounds Like He Wants 'The Wolverine' to Trump All Past Wolverine Movies

The attitude being X-Men Origins: Wolverine seemed to be "Who cares about making a great move — let's just cram as many mutants in as possible." Director James Mangold doesn't want any part of that when it comes to The Wolverine, the upcoming film about the superhero's days in Japan. We learned previously that the film, which stars Hugh Jackman as the title character, would take place years after the other X-Men movies, giving Mangold the freedom to tell a story without having to worry about locking The Wolverine into a preset continuity. Of course, X-Men Origins: Wolverine didn't worry about continuity either, and it was a prequel.

Mangold chatted with Entertainment Weekly about The Wolverine, and it really does sound like the director is intent on giving fans a Wolverine movie that'll make us forget any previous Wolverine movies sins.

Head past the jump to check out a few key parts of Mangold's interview.

The Wolverine takes place a long time after the original X-Men trilogy.

It was only to my advantage to set it after the X-Men films because the X-Men had effectively ended at that point. A lot of the key characters had died. There was a sense if I’m locating this film not five minutes after the other movie, but a period of time after that last X-Men movie, I can find a Logan who is living separate from the world. He is no longer a member of some superhero team.

There will be a mutant cameo in The Wolverine, but Mangold isn't spilling who it is yet.

An old friendship. What brings him there is an old ally in Japan.

Mangold is treating Wolverine's healing factor as if the character is basically immortal. Which isn't unprecedented in the comics, considering the fact that Wolverine was burned down to his skeleton a few years ago and still regenerated.

The thing Hugh and I try to explore in this one is the most interesting aspect of the character — the never-ending nature of his life. His immortality. The fact he can heal from anything. That is a kind of dream for us mere mortals. But it’s interesting to explore what a curse that is. 

You find Logan and his love is gone, his mentors are gone, many of his friends are gone, his own sense of purpose – what am I doing, why do I bother – and his exhaustion is high. He has lived a long time, and he’s tired. He’s tired of the pain.

So far, Mangold is saying all the rights things about The Wolverine. This isn't going to be some throwaway spinoff film like X-Men Origins: Wolverine was.