The solo Wolverine movies have operated on separate timelines from the X-Men movies, for the most part. Where the ensemble mutant adventures tend to feature costumed cretins like Magneto (Michael Fassbender or Sir Ian McKellen) and Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), Hugh Jackman's solo adventures have tried to be more mature, more realistic, and a bit more grounded. Which is why, when we recently reported that Mister Sinister might be featured in the upcoming Wolverine story Logan -- based on information Bryan Singer put on the Director's Cut for X-Men: Apocalypse -- director James Mangold quickly called us out on Twitter stating it wasn't true.
Fine. But when we sat down with Mangold at a press event in New York City, where he showed off the first 40 minutes of the movie, I brought up the topic again, and he explained to me why a character like Mister Sinister -- a classic villain from the X-Men comics -- doesn't fit with what he and Hugh Jackman are trying to accomplish. Mangold told me:
Now that you've seen some of the movie, I think [what] you get a better sense of is, that's exactly the kind of thing this movie avoids. Meaning, the kind of operatic highly-costumed, stroboscopic villainy... that's not in this movie. Everything is kind of as real as we can make it. The movie is trying to kind of take a step backward from that kind of spectacle, so that we get another kind of gain, you know. There's that loss, but the gain is that the movie feels extremely real and is -- as one person who saw the film said to me, 'I feel like I could go down the street and run into that Wolverine.' Meaning that this is in my world, not some shiny other world. This is actually taking place in my world.
The exchange started when I asked James Mangold who Richard E. Grant is playing in the film. While Mangold would only tell me that he's playing one of the movie's "dark forces," content to keep some of Logan's secrets until opening day, IMDB lists him as Dr. Zander Rice. Not Mister Sinister. Ah, I'll just let you enjoy the full exchange. It is refreshingly candid:
As James Mangold says, we lose a little something by taking away costumed villains from the universe he is building, but we gain some realistic perspective in the larger story he's trying to tell. Mangold went on to explain the type of narrative he's trying to achieve with Logan, and it's grounded in situations many of us would encounter in our own lives... minus the mutant healing factor. Mangold told me:
We all are faced with the issues of dealing for an ailing parent, but what happens when the ailing parent has the world's most powerful brain and they're losing control of their brain. That's an interesting question. What happens when you're a superhero who has saved worlds and defeated villains, but you're not healing and your power is not the same as it used to be in the case of Logan, and you have to hold a day job just to take care of your ailing parent. And then the last question is, what happens when suddenly fatherhood is thrust upon you and a child comes into your life? How do you make those connections? How do you deal with it? And if that child is a mutant, how do you deal with the interesting reflection of your own self you see in that kid?
These questions will be answered in full when Logan opens in theaters on March 3.
We actually have an amazing opportunity for CinemaBlend readers, and Wolverine fans. We are running a contest for ONE lucky fan to come to New York with us to interview Hugh Jackman on behalf of Logan. The details on the contest are here, so click and find out of you qualify.
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