In a recent interview James Mangold discusses what drew him into The Wolverine. Mangold reveals that he was excited to direct a movie based on a comic book because “you can really make a movie about this dude” without having to explain the origins of the character.

Although some are worried if Mangold can handle the sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he believes this was the perfect fit for him!

Mangold told The Playlist:

“It’s a kind of adventure following such a unique character also in a really unique environment,” he said. “I mean, the fact that half of the characters in this movie speak Japanese, this is like a foreign-language superhero movie that’s as much a drama and a detective story and a film noir, with high-octane action as it is anything like a conventional tentpole film.”

That said, however, there was still the concern that Mangold might simply be inheriting Christopher McQuarrie’s script, despite having previously written five of his eight feature films. But the filmmaker said he’s already done a lot of work collaborating with screenwriter Mark Bomback, ensuring that his voice and his vision will be represented in the finished product.

“Mark Bomback and myself have done a tremendous amount of writing on the movie,” he revealed. “There’s not a page that hasn’t been worked and reworked and rethought and story-boarded. So it just is what it is; I mean, kind of the part of connecting to the movie and developing the scenes and finding the locations and devising the action is all about not only making it good, but also in the process making it your own.”

Mangold also said he was keenly aware of the conventions of the genre he would be exploring, and felt he’s been able to turn it into a more unique story than most other superhero movies demand. “I think part of the reason I’m doing this picture has been because it isn’t to me a conventional superhero movie. It isn’t an origin story, so I’m freed from that burden, and it also isn’t a save-the-world movie, which most of them are. It’s actually a character piece; I actually think it has more in common with ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’ and ‘Chinatown,’ what we’re doing, than the conventional, ‘will Wolverine and his compatriots save the world from this thermonuclear device’ question.”

It’s clear that Mangold is excited to get into the darker side of Logan that other movies have only touched on. He will be in another country lost in a own journey to find himself. Are you excited to see this new side of a superhero movie?