Director James Mangold has explained why he decided to kill off Wolverine in the highly-acclaimed 2017 film Logan.
Mangold said that being the third and final movie in the Wolverine trilogy, Logan had to bring viewers “closure,” and that killing off Wolverine seemed to be the best way of achieving it.
Logan, directed by James Mangold, who also wrote the film with Scott Frank and Michael Green, starred Hugh Jackman, reprising his role as the troubled adamantium-clawed mutant.
Fans were shocked when the movie ended with Logan dying in the arms of his mutant daughter Laura (Dafne Keen) after X-24 impaled him on a tree stump.
the death of wolverine. I sobbed for like 20 mins after the movie ended lol ?
— ki (@AkieaG) May 25, 2020
Mangold: Wolverine’s death was a logical way to end the trilogy
Fans complained about the shocking ending of the movie and now director Mangold is speaking out in defense of his decision to kill off Wolverine.
In an interview with Comicbook.com, Mangold insisted that the final installment in the series had to offer viewers closure.
He said they chose to kill off Wolverine because it seemed the best way to get closure compared to having him “ride off onto the horizon.”
“It seemed logical, that if it were going to be his last film, that he’s either going to ride off onto the horizon or die, that you need to have some kind of curtain on his story,” he said.
“You needed some sense of an ending if you were going to end, if you were dealing with the legacy of Hugh’s many performances and many films, and trying to set this part in some definitive way.”
Mangold added that the studio (20th Century Fox) quickly accepted the idea of killing off the titular hero.
Jackman portrayed Wolverine since the first installment of the X-Men series
Jackman first appeared as Wolverine in X-Men, the first installment in the X-Men series released in 2000.
After appearing as Logan/Wolverine in X2 (2003) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), he portrayed the clawed superhero in the first installment of the Wolverine trilogy, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, released 2009.
Logan (2017) was the final installment of the trilogy after The Wolverine released in 2013.
Logan earned critical acclaim and rave reviews as one of the “single best superhero films ever.” It grossed more than $619 million worldwide.
The National Board of Review selected Logan as one of the top ten movies of 2017. Logan was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 90th Academy Award.
The Aussie actor Hugh Jackman is also known for playing Jean Valjean in Les Miserables (2012).