A new image from The Wolverine has gone online, and it shows off Wolverine's bone claws.  For those unfamiliar with the character (or had the good sense to avoid X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Wolverine's claws are part of his genetic mutation, but they're made of bone.  They were coated in indestructible adamantium (along with his entire skeleton) as part of the Weapon X program, which took place before he joined the X-Men.  While The Wolverine will reportedly have nothing to do with the plot of Origins, it will still acknowledge the X-Men trilogy, and surprisingly, won't be a prequel to them.Hit the jump for more and to check out the image.  The film stars Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi, Tao Okamoto, and Rila Fukushima.  The Wolverine opens July 26, 2013. [Update: We've updated the article with a higher-quality image, which you can check out after the jump.]Via the latest issue of Empire:Speaking to Empire, director James Mangold revealed that The Wolverine is a sequel to all of the ­X-Men movies:

"Where this film sits in the universe of the films is after them all," reveals Mangold. "Jean Grey is gone, most of the X-Men are disbanded or gone, so there’s a tremendous sense of isolation for him."

It's a surprising revelation since A) We had seen set photos that took place in a Japanese POW camp, and B) the comic the film is based on Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's Wolverine, which takes place before the eponymous mutant joined the X-Men.  However, Mangold believes it's important that the new movie exists beyond the current movie continuity:

"That’s something that for me was very important, that I land in a very specific place in his timeline," says Mangold. "I wanted to be able to tell the story without the burden of handing it off to a film that already exists and having to conform to it. The ideas of immortality reign very heavily in this story and the burden of immortality weighs heavily on Logan. For me that’s such an interesting part of Logan’s character that is nearly impossible to explore if you have a kind of league or team movie."

I'm fascinated by what Mangold has in store for the character.  As for the bone claws, presumably this is one of the World War II scenes unless Logan is going to have his adamantium ripped out like he did in X-Men #25, and that seems unlikely.

Here's the official synopsis for The Wolverine:

Based on the celebrated comic book arc, THE WOLVERINE finds Logan, the eternal warrior and outsider, in Japan. There, samurai steel will clash with adamantium claw as Logan confronts a mysterious figure from his past in an epic battle that will leave him forever changed.