The first trailer for Logan made it clear that the movie will be very different from any other comic book adaptation on the way in 2017, and that makes it very exciting. Fox could have easily followed The Wolverine with a big budget final adventure for the hero similar to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but instead, director James Mangold is heading down an R-rated route.
That means a smaller scale and a very different style of action sequences, and this unique approach is something Mangold was quick to point out during a recent interview. While it’s clear that we’ll see Wolvie taking out his opponents in a brutal manner, it sounds like character drama will be every bit as big a priority here.
“Spectacle is not enough. … The thing we’re trying to do differently is trying to invest in character. … The fact is that a lot of these movies are a collection of set pieces of action with very short connective things basically explaining how we go from action piece A to action piece B. We wanted to make a movie that’s really a drama. If you cut out the action, what you’d have is a powerful drama about interesting characters. Whether that makes us different or not, I’ll leave others to judge but I think it was our goal to make a movie that earned its audience through feeling real. Really feeling human or feeling intimate.”
Honestly, this sounds like the Wolverine movie fans have been hoping to see from the beginning, and Logan stands a very good chance of stealing the show next year. And that’s really saying something given some of the other films scheduled for release in 2017 – Wonder Woman and Justice League, to name but a few.
Finding the right balance of action and drama should help ensure that Logan is a hit and all the signs point to the character’s final adventure with Hugh Jackman in the role being a very emotional ride. As a result, it’s hardly a surprise that Mangold is so intent on making this movie every bit as dramatic as it is exciting.