Logan: Darker Tone Was Concerning for Fox, According to Studio Chief

Logan: Darker tone was concerning for Fox, according to studio chief

Logan, the third and final film in the Wolverine trilogy (beginning with 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine and 2013’s The Wolverine), is going to have a decidedly darker tone than the character’s earlier appearances. This was a concern for Twentieth Century Fox, according to chairman Stacey Snider. Variety reports that Snider spoke about their feelings during a Q&A at the Recode Media conference in Laguna Niguel, California on Tuesday.

Snider said: “Inside, there was real consternation about the intensity of the tone of the film. It’s more of an elegy about life and death. The paradigm for it was a Western, and my colleagues were up in arms. It’s not a wise-cracking cigar-chomping mutton-sporting Wolverine, and the debate internally became, isn’t that freakin’ boring? Isn’t it exciting to imagine Wolverine as a real guy and he’s world-weary and he doesn’t want to fight anymore until a little girl needs him?”

Back in October 2016, director James Mangold posted a picture of a script page on Twitter, which gave us a look at the tone of the film. It described fight scenes and began with an F-bomb, making the R rating clear from the get go. By the end of the page, Logan is getting beaten up with a variety of weapons, including guns, knives, fists and a drill.

Page two of our screenplay. http://pic.twitter.com/5X93NtWuVS

— Mangold (@mang0ld) October 5, 2016

In the film, a world weary Logan is taking care of Professor X in a hideout on the Mexican border. A young mutant, however, will change everything for him. This will be the ninth time star Hugh Jackman has played this role on the big screen. The film also stars Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant, Stephen Merchant, Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal and Elizabeth Rodriguez. Logan will hit theaters on March 3, 2017.