The Wolverine First Teaser.

[BigSyke]

Last night marked the beginning of the marketing campaign for The Wolverine and with it came two new posters and a series of stills taken from the film, officially revealing some of the central characters involved in Logan’s journey to Japan.

We met Viper, sporting a very comic book-esque green costume, and the live-action versions of Yukio and Mariko, two important elements of Wolverine’s history. Before the first trailer releases later this week, fans were promised a teaser, highlighting many of the action sequences in The Wolverine, and it’s now out a day early.

James Mangold promised a “tweaser” before the day before the full trailer and shared today this soundless Vine clip over Twitter, likely a day early to address negative feedback surrounding one of the two new Wolverine posters. This six-second teaser will be followed by the larger 20-second teaser tomorrow, and the full trailer Wednesday… While it’s extremely short, it’s very revealing and exciting.

Swordplay, Wolverine captured by Viper, Jean Grey, Silver Samurai armor, Wolverine fighting an armored Ninja, Wolverine falling, Wolverine fighting with claws, etc. Wait, Jean Grey?

Hugh Jackman previously confirmed that there would be an X-Men cameo in The Wolverine so this is it, assuming there’s only one. One of the major themes of this “standalone” Wolverine story is in dealing with the repercussions of being immortal. Over the years, Logan has lost every loved one he had, including Jean Grey in X-Men: The Last Stand, and that’s the main reason why The Wolverine takes place after the X-Men trilogy. What’s shown here is likely a dream sequence or flashback moment.

With practically everyone from the X-Men franchise returning for Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, there’s still no word on Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) or Cyclops (James Marsden) also returning, but with a story involving time travel, it’d be very odd for them not to be involved in some way. Perhaps the studio and Singer are waiting for a major reveal in The Wolverine to confirm it.

Seeing ninja combatants battling Wolverine in live-action, in a film Jackman describes as the definitive Wolverine, is something fans of Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s ’80s Wolverine miniseries, and really, all readers of X-Men comics, can get behind.

The first Wolverine trailer debuts Wednesday and will be attached to G.I. Joe: Retaliation in theaters. Does this teaser make up for yesterday’s poster?

The Wolverine is directed by James Mangold off of Mark Bomback and Christopher McQuarrie’s screenplay. It stars Hugh Jackman, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Will Yun Lee, Brian Tee, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Rila Fukushima.

The Wolverine hits theaters July 26, 2013. X-Men: Days of Future Past hits theaters on July 18th, 2014.

[Darth Biscuit]

2013 is going to be a good movie year.

[mmmbeans]

that miller series is my favorite... i'm so worried it's going to suck.

[scpanther22]

Hope they can pull if off. Hollywood seems to have trouble making movies dealing with samurais and martial arts.

[Proudiddy]

I've just always had a hard time with the X-Men trilogy... I thought they crapped the bed with it. I just never liked it and I've never liked Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.

[Porn Shop Clerk]

this is going to be turrible

[Cary Kollins]

I hope it's great, but that 6 second blur didn't do much for me. Oh how I wish Darren Aronofsky would have worked out as the director.