The Wolverine gets moving again, announces casting for the Silver Samurai, Shingen, Yashida, Mariko, and Yukio

Director James Mangold’s THE WOLVERINE has seen its fair share of delays up to this point, but with its August production start date inching ever closer, we’re now finally starting to get some important bits of casting filled. According to Coming Soon, Hiroyuki Sanada (“Lost”, THE LAST SAMURAI) has been cast as ‘Shingen’; Hal Yamanouchi (THE LIFE AQUATIC, PUSH) as ‘Yashida’; and newcomers Tao Okamoto and Rila Fukushima will star as ‘Mariko’ and ‘Yukio’, respectively. Meanwhile, Variety has announced that actor Will Yun Lee (TOTAL RECALL, ELEKTRA) has been cast as the film’s main villain, ‘Kenuichio Harada’ a.k.a. the ‘Silver Samurai’. While these are obviously not big names here in America, it’s nice to see them being authentic with their casting. A good sign.

As we’ve already known for awhile, the film – from writer Christopher McQuarrie (JACK REACHER, THE USUAL SUSPECTS) – is inspired by the popular comic book storyline by Chris Claremont & Frank Miller that follows Wolverine through his adventures in Japan. How close director James Mangold will stick to the original story, though, remains to be seen.

THE WOLVERINE is scheduled for release July 26, 2013.