X23: James Mangold Says Dafne Keen’s Laura Could Return

Could Daphne Keen return as X23? James Mangold says that X23 could be back!

Hugh Jackman may be done, but Dafne Keen’s X23 could return!

Alamo Drafthouse and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment tonight hosted a special big screen presentation of James Mangold‘s Logan Noir, a black and white version of the film that will be included on the Logan‘s DVD, Blu-ray and 4K releases on May 23. Following the feature presentation was a Q&A with star Hugh Jackman, producer Hutch Parker and Mangold himself. While Jackman reiterated that he’s done playing Wolverine, the question was raised as to whether or not Mangold would like to see Dafne Keen one day reprise her role as Laura/X23. Although it sounds like the character’s return is not a sure thing, Mangold confirms that there have been repeated conversations with the studio about exactly that.

“Anything’s possible,” says Mangold. “I’ve certainly talked to them about it. I even talked to them about it before we made the movie. I thought she was just such a great character, but with what Dafne did, I think that certainly that’s possible.”

As a comic book character, X23 (aka Laura Kinney) made her Marvel comic book debut in 2004, after originally being conceived and debuting in the animated series X-Men: Evolution. Her origins stem from a group attempting to replicate the Weapon X program, which gave Wolverine his adamantium skeleton, but who decided to go in a different direction and attempt to clone Wolverine outright. The first 22 attempts at cloning Logan failed, which is where the young mutant received her code name after being the first success. (In Logan, X23 was a more general term applied to all the mutant children birthed at the same facility as Laura.)

Following Logan’s death in 2014, Laura took over the Wolverine identity. She currently headlines Marvel’s All-New Wolverine title. Prior to that, however, X23 was a member of X-Force.

Would you like to see Dafne Keen return as Laura in some capacity? Would you watch a film with X23 as the lead or would you rather her appear as part of a team? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!