Just ahead of the DVD and Blu-ray release of Gavin Hood’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine in “the rest of the World”, here’s a couple of video interviews I carried out with Hood and Wolverine’s original creator Len Wein. They’re short, but sweet, and Hood’s comments in particular brought a smile to my face. I like him a great deal.

Quite what Wolverine’s claws mean to you can be discussed in the comments section below. First of all, though, let’s hear the guys talk about that themselves, amongst other things.

As Hood pointed out, the Blu-ray is a faithful archiving of the theatrical version of the film. It looks absolutely astonishing - truth be told, much better than in it would have in many theatres, and definitely far beyond the leaked workprint. And what the cinema and torrents couldn’t offer you, the discs can - Hood’s compelling commentary track, some fun nonsense with Stan Lee and a dose of Len Wein’s sincere, one-of-us fanboyish charm in the supplements.

And on the high-def disc only, there’s also that IMDB Live Lookup gizmo that I think represents a genuinely enticing hint of where Blu-ray is headed.

Should Gavin Hood return for another Wolverine film, as has been rumoured (though only rumoured) I certainly wouldn’t be disappointed in the studio’s choice of man. I might, however, question the man’s choice of studio. Couldn’t they please just leave him to his own devices?

At a group Q&A just prior to these 1:1 interviews, I tried to get Hood and Lauren Shuler Donner to comment on the casting of ‘franchise characters’ in the film, such as Deadpool or the young mutants. It should come as no surprise that they both admitted, if not exactly stressed, the ’studio involvement’ in such matters.

The Wolverine discs will be hitting shelves in the UK and across Europe from next Monday. Those of you in the US can already swing by the store or futuristic kiosk device thing to pick one up. As per my previously published review, I’d say it’s worth at least a rental.