"The Wolverine"? Yeah, That's Happening

     

Delayed by earthquakes and departing directors (we're looking at you, Darren Aronofsky), it started looking less and less likely that The Wolverine, the sequel to 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine was going to be happening anytime soon, especially since most of the X-Men movie news we've been getting lately has centered around a sequel to last year's X-Men: First Class.

But like everyone's favorite adamantium-clawed mutant, just when you think he's down, he comes right back for more.  As reported on SuperHeroHype earlier today, The Wolverine, which will now be directed by James Mangold, has been given an official release date of July 26, 2013. 

The sequel (prequel?) will be based around the infamous Chris Claremont/Frank Miller Japanese saga from the comics, which has Logan travelling to Japan and getting into all kinds of trouble for falling in love with the daughter of a Japanese crimelord.  It's also got the Silver Samurai and a ton of ninjas in it.  Cool.

Right now, Hugh Jackman is off in London filming the big-screen version of Les Miserables (where he will be singing a new song, according his Twitter update today), and filming for that is set to wrap up in July.  He's also got a Broadway musical about Harry Houdini that's in the works for next year, so presumably filming on The Wolverine will start just after Les Mis ends this summer.

That release date will put The Wolverine on the same opening weekend as Disney's Phineas and Ferb movie and the Dirty Dancing remake that nobody asked for and nobody wants.  So us ladies can look forward to Hugh Jackman doing his badass Wolverine thing that weekend instead of obsessing over how whoever they ultimately cast as Johnny in Dirty Dancing will never be Patrick Swayze.

Because nobody puts Wolverine in a corner.