Ever since Hugh Jackman first hinted that the upcoming third Wolverine solo film would be his final stint as the X-Men’s mutant berserker, there’s been endless speculation that this film will in fact be tackling the famed “Old Man Logan” storyline. Well, it appears that the rumour mill was out by two words.
Jackman mentioned earlier in the week that the first details of the movie was imminent and he held up that bargain as he revealed via a billboard posting on Twitter that the official title for the movie will be just Logan.
LOGAN pic.twitter.com/IeIvcvFyTE
— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) October 5, 2016
That poster on its own doesn’t tell us much, other than some child will be involved. And if you recall, the movie was casting for a very young girl, which has been heavily rumoured to be none other than Laura Kinney aka X-23, a female genetic clone of Wolverine made by the Weapon X Program. Jackman’s Wolverine is by far the biggest name/face in the X-Men movie universe, but with him seemingly hanging up his claws, this could be a way to introduce a replacement.
While all of that still has to be confirmed, we do actually get some hints of the story thanks to director James Mangold making the unexpected move of posting a page from the actual script on his Twitter account.
Page two of our screenplay. pic.twitter.com/5X93NtWuVS
— Mangold (@mang0ld) October 5, 2016
If you were to were to make like a CSI TV series and “ENHANCE!” that image, you get this:
–BANGER FIRES. Blows Logan right off his feet.
LOGAN (CONT’D)
Fuck.
Now might be a good time to talk about the ‘fights’ described in the next 100 or so pages. Basically, if you’re on the make for a hyper choreographed, gravity defying, city-block destroying CG fuckathon, this ain’t your movie.
In this flick, people will get hurt or killed when shit falls on them. They will get just as hurt or killed when shit falls on them. They will get just as hurt or just as killed if they get hit with something big and heavy like, say, a car. Should anyone in our story have the misfortune to fall off a roof or out a window, they won’t bounce. They will die.
As for our hero, well, he’s older now and it’s clear his abilities aren’t what they once were. He’s fading on the inside and his diminished healing factor keeps him in a constant state of chronic pain – hence booze as a painkiller.
So by all means, go ahead and worry about.
Now, where were we? Oh, yeah —
As the smoke settles, a CROWBAR-toting Banger angrily chews out JITTERS in Spanish for firing. The others resume their work… none aware of Logan slowly getting up till —
LOGAN (CONT’D)
Guys… seriously…
(gets to his feet)
You don’t wanna do this.
The Bangers react to Logan with bafflement. Ad-lib Spanish reactions, nervous chuckles —
CROWBAR presses down JITTERS’ gun as he moves to Logan.
We hear a familiar SNIKT! as claws extend from Logan’s hands.
CROWBAR THWACKS HIS SKULL. A metallic ring.
Off balance and pissed, Logan swings at them as they converge, but he’s drunk and soon they are pounding his with knives and guns and fists and a Makita drill.
Damn. Besides for the fact that that reads very cool, we can clearly see here that Jackman and Mangold were not kidding about the film’s R-rating with a couple of F-bombs in there as well as the promise of some heavy, realistic violence. Also of note is that it’s mentioned that Wolverine is indeed older now and his once miraculous healing factor is in fact no longer doing the job like it once did, leaving him with an alcohol dependency to numb the constant pain.
I never expected Mangold and co to do a verbatim adaptation of the “Old Man Logan” storyline as there are just too many crazy elements and characters that cannot be done in the movies either because of film rights or just because Hollywood would probably balk at them. However, it appears that they’re instead drawing their inspiration from the state of the character from that story, with his advanced age and increased physical vulnerability. I actually think that’s a rather good angle to take.
I suspect that we’ll be seeing more tidbits from the movie dropping soon, perhaps shedding more light on how the villainous Mr. Sinister – rumoured to be played by either Boyd Holbrook or Richard E. Grant – as well as the Reavers factor into things.
Wolverine 3 Logan also stars Patrick Stewart, Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal, Stephen Merchant and Elizabeth Rodriguez. It is scheduled for release on March 3, 2017.
Last Updated: October 5, 2016
