If you've seen and heard about the Japanese POW camp that's rumored to feature in "The Wolverine," and you're trying to wrap your head around where exactly the movie will take place in time, given that Wolverine fought alongside Sabretooth in WWII, but then Wolverine's former flame Lady Deathstrike already had her moment in "X2," wait, was one of her powers also a youthful appearance, will it start up when Logan's drinking in a bar like in the ending t...just stop, before you give yourself an aneurism.
Stop, take a deep breath, and now ease into a sigh of relief when you realize you won't have to play any sort of "if X, then Y" sort of theoretical Marvel movie-verse mathematics, because "The Wolverine" will be a stand-alone movie. And what's more, the only mutant seen therein will be the cigar chomping Canadian. No more, no less.
Hugh Jackman recently spoke with Total Film about the decision to finally make Logan the lone wolf on the silver screen like he's so often portrayed as in the comics.
"We've deliberately not called it Wolverine 2 because we want it to be placed and feel like a standalone picture."
"The approach to character means we won't be overloaded with mutants and teams and the like, so it'll be more character-based. I think in many ways it will feel like a completely different X-Men film."
Understandable. After all, this is a movie that focuses solely on Wolverine.
But the character overload was one of the great things about so many of the Singer X-Men movies - the method in which they would tease, or briefly show mutants in one movie, and then give them bigger parts in a follow up. It worked with Shadowcat, Iceman, Pyro, Colossus, Beast, Gambit, and others, which yes, they did occasionally screw up (ex. "X-Men 3"). But so what? It was a great fan service.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was some sleight of hand so we'll all be shocked when other muties are introduced, but I guess we'll have to wait and see, when "The Woverine" comes to theaters next summer, July 26, 2013.