Jessica Biel is the newest member of the cast for The Wolverine, which will chart the exploits of our favourite beclawed beastie – conveniently about one memory short of the usual – while he goes on holiday to Japan. Like An Idiot Abroad, but regrettably minus Karl Pilkington.

Biel (The Illusionist) will be playing Viper (a.k.a. Madame Hydra), whose loyalty traditionally lies only with the Silver Samurai, and as such, has made her a bit of a pain in the unitard for the likes of The Avengers and the X-Men. Biel’s clearly dodgy Viper joins established Japanese actors Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai and Hal Yamanouchi (Push), who will be heading up the even dodgier Yashida crime family that Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) thinks he might have been helping out in all that time he can’t remember. Well, worse things have happened during memory blackouts.

The move to Japan for the amnesiac antihero is intended to make up for the utter shambles that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine; sure, put a Scooby-Doo plaster over the gaping hole in our collective heads. Director James Mangold (Walk the Line) has said that The Wolverine will be sort of like The Outlaw Josey Wales; so basically a rootin’-tootin’ cowboy shoot-’em-up with a core of insane, cementing its status as a standalone film. This is probably for the best.

Shooting is gearing up to start soon, and release is scheduled for 26 July 2013.