One of the best moments in the Old Man Logan comic book came when we learned that Wolverine had been manipulated into slaughtering his fellow X-Men. James Mangold’s Logan, which is heavily inspired by the iconic arc, mentions the mutants’ fate, but only offers only a vague explanation as to why the superhero team is no more. That’s something which has frustrated fans, especially as including a scene even remotely similar to the source material would no doubt have been a highlight.
In a recent interview with THR, Logan screenwriter Michael Green revealed that the movie did at one point include a flashback which fully showed us what happened to the X-Men, before explaining why the decision was made to drop it. He also mentioned that unfortunately, it was never shot, so don’t get your hopes up to see it included as a deleted scene on the eventual Blu-ray release.
“It actually hits home a lot harder than the versions that really painted out specifically the flashback. Of course there are versions we wrote that were never filmed with the actual flashback of what happened, but I’ve found the experience of watching it is far more poignant to just know that it was something really regrettable and it was bad and most likely, friends were lost. Or maybe it was people we didn’t know.”
Logan director James Mangold added to Green’s comments as well, mentioning that they “wanted to make a movie less about information and more about character,” which is a fair point, but one unlikely to appease fans who would have liked to learn more about the fate of the iconic superhero team.
Ultimately though, Logan is a film about Wolverine, so perhaps we shouldn’t be all that surprised that the X-Men were left on the shelf. Besides, the threequel had plenty of other incredible moments and with it serving as such a fitting end to the hero’s arc, it’s hard to complain too much about the Wolvie’s old friends being cut out completely.
