The Wolverine (2013)

[Dasquian Belargic]

So here's the first image of Hugh Jackman in the new Wolverine film:

http://nerdreactor.com/2012/09/24/hugh-jackman-shirtless-and-ripped-in-the-wolverine-official-image/

Dude is hella buff.. and veiny.

[Captain Untouchable]

Clearly he's been on steroids - it's made his claws shrink.

[Sansa]

I am just a little jealous of Hugh Jackman's wife. :yum

[Jack Bradley]

I am just a little jealous of Hugh Jackman's wife. :yum

You're so predictable :p

[Sansa]

I try to be consistent. ;)

[Atreyu]

Not bad, but his lean look makes his head seem out of proportion to his body.

Question: how will this film sit in the continuity? Sequel to the first Wolverine film? In the same universe as First Class?

[Captain Untouchable]

^ Allegedly, both will be canon.

The continuity errors between Origins and First Class are pretty minor all things considered; and since they're going to tie First Class 2 into the other movies a little more, I guess it makes sense.

[Dasquian Belargic]

It's a standalone sequel to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men_Origins:_Wolverine

[Captain Untouchable]

Not according to what I read the other day... apparently they're trying to make it match up with X-Men: First Class as well, what with that aspect of the franchise being so successful and all.

I think it's some Avengers-related back-pedalling. Audiences responded really strongly to the whole idea of bringing the independent storylines together: seems like Fox wants to avoid doing the exact opposite, which is what would've happened if Wolverine was stand-alone.

Then again, they keep seeming to change their minds on this, so I'm not sure anyone really knows. :uhoh

[Dasquian Belargic]

So, it turns out this will be taking place after X-Men 3: http://nerdreactor.com/2012/10/25/the-wolverine-director-says-it-takes-place-after-x-men-3/

[Atreyu]

Hmmm, as the article points out by doing this it effectively 'canonises' X3 which I'm sure many fans would rather forget. Then again, for me personally I could never figure out how this film was going to work sitting in between First Class and the other X-Men films - at least this way they won't have to worry about establishing bridges and instead just continue on from the end.

[Captain Untouchable]

Were people really expecting X-Men 3 to somehow not be canon?

Picking and choosing what is canon and what isn't is something that hardcore fans get, but the general public doesn't really give two shits about. They don't read all these articles; they don't know all the details. They're going to show up at the cinema to watch a movie where Hugh Jackman is Wolverine, and they're going to assume that all of the other things they've seen Hugh Jackman do as that character are part of the backstory.

Anything more complicated than that, and you're just going to confuse a huge chunk of your audience. The internet percentage may be more vocal, but the casual viewers are the real source of income. Anyone expecting them to cater to the internet fans at the expense of the casuals must've been drinking too much of the crazy juice. :\


Then again, I'm a massive Star Trek fan. If you can tolerate the crew of the Enterprise travelling to the centre of the galaxy to literally find God, the relatively minor negative points of X-Men 3 don't seem like such a big deal.

[Atreyu]

Were people really expecting X-Men 3 to somehow not be canon?
Not so much 'not canon', but rather that leaving it where it was so it can be conveniently ignored, which seemed to be the way that Fox et al. were heading when they made First Class and the initial statements regarding when The Wolverine was set. X3 would still exist of course, but by focusing more on 'prequel era' type stories fans could pretend it wasn't there.