Logan Was to Begin with a Brutal Scene That Would Set a Different Tone for the Wolverine Movie with Hugh Jackman
James Mangold wanted to open Logan in a different way, but changed his mind, fearing that this would give too much attention to other characters.
Logan is a groundbreaking superhero movie that delighted audiences. It showed us a completely different side of this “comic book” world and allowed Hugh Jackman to say goodbye to Wolverine... at least for a while, because as we already know very well, the actor returned to his iconic role in Deadpool & Wolverine, which can now be seen in theaters.
But perhaps not everyone knows that this production could have had a different tone if the director had decided to go ahead with his original plan. However, he had to abandon it because he feared that from a film about Logan and Charlies Xavier, it would have turned into another production about the X-Men, which he didn't want.
What could lead to that? A scene he wanted to place at the beginning of the movie, which would have shown the annihilation of the X-Men. However, he decided to let it play out off-screen, focusing on Wolverine's story itself and his struggles with the event.
James Mangold told the story in 2017 during an interview with IGN.
I literally had written an opening which started with that sequence. And so it was quite literal, who was dead. But the reason we didn’t do it wasn’t to spare other films, it was that it redefined the movie. It made the movie about the X-Men, instead of being about Logan and Charles.
And irrevocably, when you read the script opening that way, it became about this other tragedy, as opposed to that tragedy being something hovering like a shadow in the background for these characters.
Mangold is of the opinion that Logan would have lost out on such a scene. And perhaps this decision was right, looking at the fact that the film came off really well when it could fully focus on Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman.
