The production process on Logan – the third Wolverine movie – has clearly kicked up a gear, since the internet has been flooded with snippets of information over the course of the past few days. We’ve seen the unveiling of a poster, and a Tweet from director James Mangold that included a page of the script. The Wrap is now reporting a greater level of plot detail, however, and it provides a great deal of food for thought.
The year is 2024, and the film is drawing heavily from the Old Man Logan aspects of the comic book source material for the character. This means that our hero (Hugh Jackman) is aged, unwell, and experiencing an alarming decline in his powers. His healing abilities are now deeply unreliable, and he also bears the pressure of caring for Professor X (Patrick Stewart), who is quite infirm himself. Also in inexplicable decline is the rate of mutant births, and the story of the film plays out against the backdrop of a government operation (named Transigen), which trains young mutants to kill.
It’s reported that the child-like hand that is seen on the new poster (below) belongs to a young mutant girl, and Wolverine is mentoring her. It seems reasonable to suggest that it is the actions of the government – and its Transigen program – that draw Wolverine into a conflict that surrounds the young girl in his charge.
Logan will be directed by James Mangold, and will see Patrick Stewart, Stephen Merchant, Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant, and Elizabeth Rodriguez join Hugh Jackman in the cast. The film is heading for an R rating, and will arrive in theatres on March 3rd, 2017.
