One of the most impressive parts about Logan was one of its most closely guarded secrets: Hugh Jackman not only played the title character, he played his evil double too; a perfect clone of Wolverine known as X-24. This new character wasn’t featured in any of the marketing materials or even alluded to in any way. When he shows up late in the film he is a shock, and an effective extension of the movie’s themes about a man wrestling with his nature as a killer (and, possibly, a monster).
Hugh Jackman’s The Greatest Showman, a musical about the life of famed circus director P.T. Barnum, had a tough time getting off the ground. Before La La Land, if you can believe there was such a time, studios looked askance at any who suggested a rebirth of the Hollywood musical. But Jackman and director Michael Gracey were not to be deterred, working like mad to get their circus musical off the ground, and it paid off. The Greatest Showman will hit theaters this December, and the first images hit the Internet today.
When Logan arrives on Blu-ray next week, it will include one of the better bonus features in recent home entertainment history: A black and white cut of the film called Logan Noir, which made its premiere last night at a special screening at Brooklyn’s Alamo Drafthouse. The Noir cut looks great, but the real story coming out of last night’s event wasn’t the new version, it was a comment made by director James Mangold during the post-screening Q&A.
The internet’s movie rumormongers did get a few things right about Logan, Hugh Jackman’s third and supposedly final solo Wolverine movie. They did correctly predict that Logan’ female clone, X-23, would co-star in the film. They also anticipated that the movie would be loosely based on a Marvel Comics storyline called “Old Man Logan.” Of course, after that rumor was initially posted, it was also publicly debunked by one site. You win some, you lose some.
Hugh Jackman isn’t the only one saying goodbye to the X-Men. Sir Patrick Stewart has decided that Logan will be his last appearance as Professor Charles Xavier as well, after appearing as the character in six other X-Men movies.
Logan works on many levels, mostly as a swan song for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. We’ve known for ages that this would be his last run playing the character, and Logan gives him an appropriately melancholy, moving send-off. But, had Marvel and 20th Century Fox been able to reach some kind of deal before Jackman made the decision not to sign on for another movie after this one, his Wolverine might have stuck around.
The first X-Men movie opened on July 14, 2000. A child born early that year would have just turned 17 by the time the tenth entry in the X-Men series, Logan, hits theaters next month. That is fortunate – viewers are going to need a driver’s license to get into this movie, which possesses the hardest R rating of any American superhero movie in history. In the past, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine would swing his razor-sharp adamantium claws and bad guys would simply fall to the ground. There was never any visible evidence of his brutality. There’s more graphic violence in Logan’s first scene – severed limbs, gruesome disembowlings – than in all of the other of the Wolverine and X-Men movies combined.
Ryan Reynolds’ wish for a proper Deadpool and Wolverine crossover movie may never come true, but the actor has apparently achieved something pretty close with a small cameo in Logan. According to a new report, the actor recently filmed a scene for Hugh Jackman’s final bow as Wolverine, though it’s unclear if we’ll actually see the two characters share the screen when Logan hits theaters next spring.
We already know that one of the villains in the upcoming Wolverine sequel is Mister Sinister, aka Nathaniel Essex, whose arrival was teased in the X-Men: Apocalypse post-credits scene. But what about the film’s other villain, played by Narcos star Boyd Holbrook? Thanks to another new image from Logan, we have our first look at Holbrook’s character — and a name to go along with it.