Production on director James Mangold's The Wolverine has been underway for just about a week now, and already we've gotten our first look at the follow-up to 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine by way of different set photos, the most recent of which showed off a prison, as well as Hugh Jackman's hairstyle for the upcoming film.

A fresh batch of photos have been snapped which also put the spotlight on Jackman's appearance, only in these ones, he looks drastically different. While the previous photos showed Wolverine sporting a shorter haircut that still flared up somewhat on the sides, these new stills show Jackman with a wild tangle of long hair draping down practically to his shoulders, along with a full, scruffy beard.

While it's no secret The Wolverine will be set in Japan and will be based on Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's comic series from the early 1980s, it's still difficult to pinpoint when exactly in the film Logan will be sporting this overgrown look. One might have thought the mess of hair would be associated with Wolverine's time in the prison, but the prison set photos previously mentioned all show him with that shorter-hair look, so unless he arrives at the enclosure sporting the longer hair, it seems unlikely that's how things will play out.

Check out the photos below (courtesy of Superhero Hype):

 

It is worth mentioning that both recent, and still upcoming, films have hinted that long, overgrown, hair could mean hard times ahead. Consider The Dark Knight Rises, in which a shut-in, physically weakened Bruce Wayne sports some significant scruff before he dons the Batsuit once again. Or, Man of Steel, as set photos from that film showed a clean-shaven Henry Cavill in the classic uniform, as well as a more down-on-his-luck Clark Kent in tattered clothing, sporting a pretty solid beard. Also, consider Skyfall, the upcoming James Bond film due out in November. The recently released trailer shows Bond getting back into action with some mild facial hair (which is still pretty extreme for Bond standards) while Ralph Fiennes' character suggests he's "lost a step."

All of this is meant to point out that, regardless of where Jackman's hair-strewn look crops up in the film, it will most likely go hand-in-hand with Logan facing an especially daunting adversity.

We'll keep you posted as new set photos from The Wolverine arrive online.

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The Wolverine is slated for a July 26, 2013 release date.

Source: Superhero Hype