As we await the first trailer for The Wolverine to debut later this week, here's a couple of new posters and a collection of photos from the film featuring Hugh Jackman as The Wolverine now serving as a protector for Mariko (Tao Okamoto), the target of the Yakuza. James Mangold explains,
At the time this movie opens, there's a kind of gangland war going on between law enforcement and the Yakuza, and there's been a lot of kidnappings and extortion. So she's someone who's under threat.
Check out the photos below, each one comes with a little quote from the director or Jackman giving an explanation of the picture and thoughts on the character in it.
The photos also give us our first real look at Viper played by Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy's Svetlana Khodchenkova, a villainess from the comic books, who is brought in to help another one of the film's villains.
As her name would imply, she's kind of snakelike. She likes to play with toxins. She's immune to toxins. She's kind of formidable. Viper views Logan like a great hunter might view hunting a lion in his quarry. There's kind of an admiration, a desire to destroy and a desire to consume and to have and to hold.
We also get a look at Yukio played by Rila Fukushima, who ends up befriending Wolverine,
I would say they have a unique relationship. She's lethal herself.
Death, or Wolverine's inability to die, is a theme that echoes throughout the film. ''He realizes everyone he loves dies, and his whole life is full of pain,'' says Jackman. ''So it's better that he just escapes. He can't die really. He just wants to get away from everything.''
A funeral at a Japanese temple is interrupted by an attack by the Yakuza which naturally brings out Wolverine's claws. ''There's an urgency and a kind of intensity and hand to hand physicality to the fighting that I hope is a little different than everything else out there,'' says Mangold.
Mangold stresses that Yukio can more than hold her own in this world of ninjas and mutants. ''She's a tremendous fighter."
Besides her butt-kicking skills, Yukio also has style. Says Mangold, ''I think she's both sexy and almost kind of sprung from the anime world. It's a real badass character.''
Based on the celebrated comic book arc, this epic action-adventure takes Wolverine (Jackman), the most iconic character of the X-Men universe, to modern day Japan. Out of his depth in an unknown world, he will face a host of unexpected and deadly opponents 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.
The Wolverine slashes its way into theaters on July 26th, 2013!