James Mangold on The Wolverine and its place in the X-Men movie universe

It may be a shared universe, but with all of the continuity issues arising from the first five instalments, 20th Century Fox's X-Men movie franchise is certainly far from a cohesive universe. Having launched the Marvel movie series back in 2000, director Bryan Singer is currently "fixing sh*t" from Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand with X-Men: Days of Future Past, and it had been assumed that Hugh Jackman's upcoming solo adventure The Wolverine would mark the first step in Fox's plan to replicate the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as paving the way for next year's mutant epic.

So, how do the two movies tie in? Well, not at all really, according to director James Mangold (Knight and Day):

"Bryan and I have talked and he’s seen what we’ve done," Mangold tells SFX. "Clearly the reality is that we are all trying to work together and make things groove together. But the trick is we were making our movie before Bryan came on and before I knew what they were up to in that film. Our agenda was always our agenda and our movie stands alone, so the journey we take Logan on in The Wolverine, we bring to a close."

The Wolverine opens in UK cinemas on July 25th, while X-Men: Days of Future Past will hit cinemas on May 23rd, 2014 and sees Jackman sharing the screen with a host of X-Men veterans including Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Halle Berry (Storm), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman) and Daniel Cudmore (Colossus).