Have you ever watched a superhero film that peels back the cape to reveal the raw humanity beneath? Logan, the groundbreaking installment of the Wolverine saga, does just that. Here, Hugh Jackman, the talisman of Wolverine’s world, embodies fragility and mortality in a performance that is as much a swan song as it is a masterclass in character depth. Sure, the film’s director, James Mangold, took us on a detour from the well-trodden path of relentless action.
In Logan, we are not merely spectators of spectacle; we are privy to a heart-rending narrative that feels akin to watching mythic heroes descend from Olympus to walk among us.
But did you know anything about the storyline that served as a partial blueprint for the film? Mangold originally contemplated bringing the X-Men’s dire fate to the foreground but instead chose a path less trodden, leaving their demise just out of sight, allowing audiences to grapple with the gravity of an unseen tragedy.
The Violent Scene in Logan That Could’ve Altered Hugh Jackman’s Legacy as Wolverine?
Director James Mangold wanted to move away from the traditional superhero movie formula and create a film that felt more like a family drama.
In a 2017 interview with IGN, he highlighted the importance of ending franchises on a high note, allowing the story to come to a natural conclusion without worrying about setting up future installments or keeping characters alive for potential sequels.
One of the most shocking revelations in Logan is the fact that the X-Men are dead, and it was Professor X who inadvertently caused their demise. This dark and tragic twist has set the tone for the entire film and put the focus squarely on Logan and Charles, rather than the superhero team as a whole.
Originally, Mangold had planned to show the brutal demise of the X-Men on-screen but ultimately decided that it would overshadow the personal journey of Logan and Charles. To quote the director:
I literally had written an opening which started with that sequence. And so it was quite literal, who was dead. But the reason we didn’t do it wasn’t to spare other films, it was that it redefined the movie. It made the movie about the X-Men, instead of being about Logan and Charles.
And irrevocably, when you read the script opening that way, it became about this other tragedy, as opposed to that tragedy being something hovering like a shadow in the background for these characters.
In the Old Man Logan comics, the death of the X-Men is depicted diagrammatically and viciously, with Logan himself being responsible for their deaths. In the film, however, it is Professor X who unknowingly kills his students due to a degenerative brain disorder. Mangold stated the following during his chat with ComingSoon:
Yeah, I wrote that scene. I wrote it, and at one point, it was even the first scene in the movie.
The decision to not show the massacre of the X-Men on-screen was a deliberate one, made in order to keep the focus of the film on the emotional journey of the main characters. Without question, Marvel would never have permitted such a violent scene in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Edgy Scenes Hugh Jackman Knew Wouldn’t Make the Cut in Deadpool & Wolverine
Deadpool, our beloved antihero, is known for breaking the fourth wall, and this time he’s not only shattering it but doing a conga line over the pieces.
In an interview with GetFandom, Shawn Levy and our charismatic leading man, Ryan Reynolds, held their breath as they presented audacious jokes to the Marvel maestro, Kevin Feige. Against the odds, the jests not only passed muster but had Feige in stitches, proving that if the punchline lands, Deadpool gets a free pass. The director said:
There are so many jokes that I still can’t believe Marvel let us do. When Deadpool says to Wolverine, ‘Welcome to the MCU, you’re joining at a bit of a low point.’ That’s up there. And, when Deadpool was like, ‘Can we just be done with the whole Multiverse? It’s just miss, after miss, after miss.’
Hugh Jackman was also reportedly astounded by Marvel’s leniency, with many eyebrow-raising quips surviving the cutting room floor:
They were really pretty amazing. There were some times on set, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s definitely not going to make the cut. Oh no, it’s in the movie.
Overall, this latest Deadpool flick is poised to throw caution to the wind and serve us a smorgasbord of meta-humor with a side of irreverence.
Watch Deadpool & Wolverine in theaters now. Also, Logan is streaming on Disney+.
