5 Huge LOGAN Reveals From James Mangold About The Trailer And The Movie's First 40 Minutes
The truth behind that comic book, the fate of the X-Men, and some big reveals about the villains are all revealed in a breakdown of the Logan trailer by James Mangold and a recap of the first 40 minutes.
The amazing final trailer for Logan was revealed a little earlier today, and it featured some cool new reveals. However, director James Mangold has broken down the preview and you can find his most interesting comments about what it contained below. Recaps of the movie's first forty minutes have also surfaced, and we've sifted through those to bring you the biggest and most shocking revelations.
What sort of juicy details are we talking about? Well, how does news on Wolverine's mysterious illness and the fate of the X-Men take your fancy? What about Donald Pierce's big secret and Logan's incredible (and violent) opening sequence? That's just a taste of what you'll find here, so click through the slides below for everything you need to know about what may be 2017's most exciting release.
5. What's Up With The X-Men Comic Book Wolverine Is Reading?
In an interview with Digital Spy, James Mangold confirmed that they were unable to use a real X-Men comic book because of...copyright reasons?! Fox may own the rights to the film franchise, but they obviously don't own the comics, so Joe Quesada and Dan Panosian were drafted in to come up with the one we'll see on screen in Logan (which happens to show Wolverine in his classic costume).
"It's not a real comic. For copyright reasons, we had to make new ones. We used original period X-Men artists to do it, for instance Joe Quesada did those covers. This was an idea that I had with Scott Frank, my writing partner, that Logan and Charles and any other remaining mutants in the future would be living under the weight of their own legacy and celebrity – much like sports stars and heroes and astronauts and movie stars live under. And that it would be really interesting to examine what it's like to be a superhero in twilight, living under the weight of the exaggerations and truths of what's been told and said about you. So all of those things lived in our universe – comic books, action figures, all of it. It's all vintage in the future point of our movie, but it's a kind of legacy that is both something, for some of the characters they're proud, and for other characters it's a kind of noose around their neck."
Speculation is already running rampant that we're getting a flashback to Wolverine wearing that blue and yellow costume, or that he'll wear it to compensate for his healing factor being on the fritz.
4. Donald Pierce May Have A Massive Secret
Before any of this happens, Pierce stalks Wolverine, asking him for information on the whereabouts of X-23. That's because Logan was approached by a woman called Gabriella hoping for his help with the young mutant, and after she ends up dying, Laura hitches a ride in the trunk of Wolverine's limo back to his home with Caliban and Professor X in Mexico. That's why the Reavers end up coming calling!
Meanwhile, James Mangold tells Digital Spy that Zander Rice is up to no good and that he's trying to create his own mutants! "He's the puppet master behind Pierce and the Reavers, and has a much larger role in the sense that he's actually the kind of brilliant mind that is trying to grow mutants."
3. Professor X's New Role In The X-Men Universe
Based on JoBlo.com's description of Logan's first forty minutes, Charles really is losing his mind and is far from pleased about being left at home with Caliban. After the Professor gets some medication, he starts talking sense...well, mostly! "[frick] off, Logan," he says, when the clawed mutant tries to give him some pills. "You leave me with that [frick]ing albino..." According to Mangold, he'll be bringing the fun to this movie in a big way though, and this is a very different version to what we've seen before.
"Our Charles is a very sweet character in this film. I think he's always been an incredibly sweet character. With the addition of his own physical fragility in this movie, he becomes an incredibly powerful paternal figure in the movie. Logan is more of a reluctant one, I think you can easily guess. But I think there's a lot of heart all around. That's the other thing audiences can expect, and I think I expect of myself. Which is just, I'm not trying to deliver – and have no intention of just making – a blood-fest."
Interestingly, the footage ended with Charles telling Wolverine, "You know who she is, Logan," in regards to X-23. "Does she remind you of anybody?" Charles is almost smiling when he says that, and that's our strongest indication yet that Laura will ultimately be revealed as Logan's daughter or clone.
2. What Exactly Happened To The X-Men?
Logan is set roughly five years after the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past, so what exactly happened to the heroes in that time? During one of Wolverine and Pierce's earliest confrontations, the villains mentions that, "Charles' brain is classified as a weapon of mass destruction," and then elaborates, saying, "A shame what happened up East." That has to be a reference to the X-Men's fate.
Could it be that Charles lost control and somehow wiped out Earth's mutant population? Did some other tragedy take place in Westchester at the X-Mansion? With any luck the movie will elaborate on their fate the same way Old Man Logan did, but the first forty minutes apparently make it clear that pretty much everyone knows who Logan is and that Pierce is actually a big fan of his "work."
Here's a very interesting exchange which takes place early on between Wolverine and Charles:
"Statue of Liberty was a long time ago. There are no New Mutants," he says to Charles. "Maybe we were God’s mistake," Logan adds.
"What a disappointment you are. When I found you, you were pursuing a career as a cage fighter. You were an animal. We took you in. I gave you a family," Charles says.
"And they’re gone now."
"Logan…what did you do? What did you do? Answer me. Why are we here?"
"It’s for your own good." "You’re waiting for me to die."
1. Logan's Awesome Opening Sequence
It's been clear for a while now that Logan is a very different sort of superhero movie, and JoBlo.com's recap of the opening sequence sounds like something very special indeed. Here's the description:
The film opens abruptly with Logan himself, Hugh Jackman, sleeping inside a psuedo-futuristic limo. He is awoken suddenly and stumbles out of the car as if drunk and delirious. Four gangster-type thieves are trying to steal his tires. Logan is very matter-of-fact with them in telling them to stop, more cautious to them than angry. But, the gangster thieves are short tempered and simply shoot Logan to the ground.
Title card pops up: LOGAN
Logan lays on the ground, bleeding, hurt. He's slow to get up, not like we've seen him in past films where he's quick and angry. He's obviously not himself. He engages them again, as if drunk, but it's a ruse. He pops his claws, which come out slow, as if malfunctioning. But, they still come out. The gangster thieves attack and it becomes a bloodbath. Within a few seconds LOGAN is already the Wolverine film we've been waiting for; An arm is sliced off, blood spraying, claws through a head, blood spurting everywhere. This is the Wolverine you always wanted to see.
Talking to Digital Spy, Mangold elaborates on that, explaining that there's something very wrong with Wolverine. Is he fighting off something like the Legacy virus or another sort of life threatening ailment?
"We find him in a state of extreme disrepair. He's sick. I think the movie will reveal how exactly he's ill, but the idea is that we find him in a state much like the examples I was just saying. What is it like for a sports star or an astronaut when your knees start to give out and your elbows creak and it's harder to get out of bed and you have dizzy spells and you feel weaker and you're self-medicating with drugs or alcohol? This is kind of the reality he's living under, at this point in the movie."
Something else which points to this being Wolverine's final adventure is the fact that Caliban finds an Adamantium bullet in Logan's pocket. It sounds like the mutant may be contemplating suicide, though Laura coming into his life could very well change that. The last time he took one of those to the brain was in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so hopefully the hero won't end up going down that route again.
What do you guys think about these latest Logan revelations? As always, be sure to let us know your thoughts on that in the comments section down below.