Japanese Trailer For THE WOLVERINE Comes With Added Ninja Action

The James Mangold directed The Wolverine hits US screens in July with international rollouts to follow with observers curious to see if Mangold can shake the faint odor of failure attached to the generally hated X-Men: The Last Stand and generally shrugged off X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Despite being one of the most popular characters in the Marvel canon it seems likely that if this effort fails to light up the box office we could see everyone's favorite mutant either mothballed or re-booted. So there's a little bit riding on the film.

Which may, perhaps, be one of the motivating factors in tackling one of the character's popular Japanese storylines with this latest outing. It engages the hardcore fanbase, for one thing, while providing some distance from the dodgy results of the character's most recent big screen outings of significance. And it also gives Japan - a large, wealthy, cinema going market - a rooting interest in coming out en masse. Cue up the Japan- specific trailer.

The footage in this latest trailer is largely familiar - I'd say 85 - 90% of it is also in the main US trailer - but there are some definite additions while the presentation of the familiar is significantly different and clearly meant to put a greater emphasis on the Japanese cast and locale. Take a look below.