Logan Red Band Trailer Cuts In One Small, Brutal Change

Snikt! Wolverine unleashes his devastating claws in brutal fashion in the red band trailer for James Mangold’s Logan.

It’s the second of two teaser trailers to release today – see the SFW cut here – though this latest, R-rated snippet slices in one extra, stomach-churning scene. Presumably fending off a wave of goons to safeguard Sienna Novikov’s X-23 (AKA Laura Kinney), towards the end of the trailer we see Hugh Jackman’s jaded mutant executing the mercenary by jamming those shimmering claws into the underside of his jaw.

It’s not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure, but it does hint at the ways in which Mangold plans to tap into the darker tenets of the Wolverine character, which ought to neatly align with the film’s bleak tone. Desperate times, desperate measures.

As a matter of fact, a bearded Hugh Jackman fighting to protect an innocent young girl from governmental agents evokes memories of The Last of Us in the best possible way. This, coupled with the inclusion of Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” in the trailers – both green band and red – really drives home the point that 20th Century Fox have offered a welcome dose of creative freedom to Mangold and his writing team, tapping into the beloved Old Man Logan story arc in the process. You can thank the Merc With a Mouth for that one.

Elsewhere, upon breaking down today’s trailer reveal with Empire, Mangold hinted at how Logan fits in to the overarching timeline:

“Hugh and I have been talking about what we would do since we were working on the last one, and for both of us it was this requirement that, to be even interested in doing it, we had to free ourselves from some assumptions that had existed in the past, and be able to change the tone a bit. Not merely to change for change’s sake, but also to make something that’s speaking to the culture now, that’s not just the same style — how many times can they save the world in one way or another? How can we construct a story that’s built more on character and character issues, in a way as if it almost wasn’t a superhero movie, yet it features their powers and struggles and themes?”

“Nature made me a freak. Man made me a weapon. And God made it last too long.” Logan will bring about Hugh Jackman’s final appearance with the adamantium claws, and you can look forward to Mangold’s sombre flick hitting theaters on March 3, 2017, when Jackman will be joined by Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant, Stephen Merchant, Patrick Stewart and Eriq La Salle.