Hugh Jackman has got to be used to operating within multiple X-Men timelines, by now. After seeing the most recent Logan trailer, though, I know I had some questions. For example: why is there some sort of post-apocalyptic situation going on, and what led to it? How much time has gone by? Why do X-Men comics apparently exist in this universe (even if they’re, according to Wolverine’s statement in the trailer, not accurate)?
I’m not sure if we’ll have answers to all of those questions, even after the movie comes out. There may well be some mysteries that don’t have simple explanations, and that can make for a compelling plot, anyway. But here’s one thing we do know about Logan, thanks to some recent statements from Hugh Jackman: it won’t be in the same “world” as the other X-Men movies.
Now, maybe that means it’s in an alternate universe, or an alternate timeline. Maybe not. Here’s the quote in question, via Digital Spy:
“When you see the full movie you’ll understand. Not only is it different in terms of timeline and tone, it’s a slightly different universe. It’s actually a different paradigm and that will become clear…
“It’s a stand alone movie in many ways. It’s not really beholden to timelines and storylines in the other movies. Obviously Patrick Stewart was in there, so we have some crossover, but it feels very different and very fresh.
“[Following the timelines] becomes a chess game that you try to serve, which actually doesn’t help to tell a story, and it’s sort of been a bit all over the place. I’m not critical of it – X-Men was the first movie really in comic book, no one thought there’d be another and there were different directors different off shoots.”
I’m very intrigued by the idea of a “different paradigm” for this movie. Since it’s inspired by the Old Man Logan comics, which were originally not part of X-Men canon and later became canon, it makes sense that perhaps this world would feel different in some ways. By and large, it sounds like this is a movie that will require us all to not spend too much time worrying about how it fits into the rest of the cinematic X-Men universe.
In some ways, though, that’s too bad… particularly since I was hoping that X-23 would end up getting a movie of her own, after all of this. Given the current bizarre state of the X-Men timelines, however, I have no idea how that could happen or what it would look like. But maybe that’s okay. X-Men could use another reboot– and an All-New Wolverine, if you will.
(via /Film, image via 20th Century Fox)
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