Even though one of the post-credits scenes in X-Men Origins: Wolverine included Wolverine in Japan, it doesn't mean the new James Mangold-directed film The Wolverine is going to be a sequel. In fact there's a reason why it's not called Wolverine 2, they wanted this Wolverine movie to be a standalone film, which is definitely the way to go. Especially after how bad the first Wolverine movie turned out.
Hugh Jackman recently did an interview with Total Film magazine (via Coventry Telegraph) in which he discusses where The Wolverine fits in with the rest of the X-Men movies.
We've deliberately not called it Wolverine 2 because we want it to be placed and feel like a standalone picture. With an all-new cast and setting it in Japan, it's going to give us a whole new visual aesthetic. 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.
This is exactly what Wolverine needs, in fact I'd love to see more standalone X-Men movies like this that are more character focused.
The movie is based on the 1982 comic series created by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, and the story follows Logas as he "begins a forbidden romance with a Japanese woman whose hand in marriage is, unfortunately, promised to another man. Since Logan won't take 'no' for an answer, it puts him into battle with her father and her samurai-sword-wielding brothers and Silver Samurai."
The movie is currently shooting, and is scheduled to hit theaters on July 26th, 2013. It also co-stars Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima and Brian Tee.
Are you happy to hear the movie won't really be connected to any of the previous X-Men films?