The Wolverine has been busy as of late, sharing mini-featurettes on the various characters surrounding Logan (Hugh Jackman) on his latest standalone journey. Today’s tease, posted on YouTube, belongs to Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), a mutant villain with deep connections to Wolverine in the X-Men universe who will be folded into this plot by linking her to the Silver Samurai (Will Yun Lee).
It’s hard to tell from the above clip, but it’s suggested that Viper works for the powerful Japanese man who brings Logan to Japan to repay him a debt by removing his mutant abilities to heal. That’s why Viper has Wolverine in a lab, right? That has to be the experiment that removes his powerful mutation. Either way, the Viper character is undergoing a conversion from how she was used over the years in the Marvel comic books, where she battled the Avengers, the X-Men and the New Mutants. It’s possible that director James Mangold will try to tap into an old storyline where Viper tried to assassinate Mariko Yashida, who will be played in The Wolverine by Tao Okamoto.
The Viper clip follows a steady stream of recent Wolverine featurettes, that have focused in on the lethal archer Harada, the mysterious warrior Yukio, and Logan himself. I’m sharing all of them below, because they come with interesting insight from Mangold, Jackman and the rest of the cast.
The Wolverine reaches theaters on July 26, and I’m wondering if Fox has any plans to debut footage – or perhaps the entire film – in San Diego for Comic-Con. It would be an ideal time to capitalize on a gathering of comic geeks ready to embrace a kick-ass Wolverine movie … particularly one that’s able to wash the taste of X-Men Origins: Wolverine out of our mouths. Because while fans still support Jackman in the Wolverine role, this will be his last chance at getting solo Wolverine movie, right? That is, unless this one rules and makes tons of money.
