Twentieth Century Fox has set an official release date for their long-in-development sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was once titled The Wolverine but is now simply being called Wolverine 2 until a more official title is selected.

The studio has reserved July 23, 2013 for the return of Hugh Jackman as the beloved Marvel anti-hero, which will see him heading overseas to Japan for the Samurai storyline this time around.

James Mangold will direct the sequel, following up the much maligned efforts of Origins director Gavin Hood. Mangold has previously directed films such as Cop Land, Girl, Interrupted, Identity, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma, and Knight and Day.

No start day has been announced as of yet, but Wolverine 2 is expected to get moving forward more rapidly in the near future.

The July 23rd release date currently puts it head-to-head with Kenny Ortega’s Dirty Dancing remake and Disney’s Phineas and Ferb movie, and a week after the Tom Cruise science fiction flick that has been called both Oblivion and Horizons.

[Source: Heat Vision]