The role of young mutant Laura (aka X-23) in Logan is a demanding one, to say the least, and it’s not surprising that finding the perfect actor for the part was equally challenging for director James Mangold. He needed to find a 12-year-old actress with acrobatic and martial-arts skills who could speak English and Spanish, and, perhaps most important of all, hold her own opposite Hugh Jackman. That’s a pretty specific list of requirements, but Dafne Keen fit the bill (and then some), and now you can watch one of the incredibly impressive (and profanity-laden, FYI) audition tapes that led to her breakout role.
Earlier this month, X-Men fans were treated to Logan, a Wolverine movie … without Wolverine. A sort of adaptation of the comic Old Man Logan (although more in tone than plot), the movie imagines a future where mutants are nearly all dead, and a barely hanging on Logan is low-key doing chauffeur work to take care of a decrepit Charles Xavier. When some bad guys go after a young girl named Laura suddenly in Logan’s care, the ex X-Man takes a road trip to get her to safety --- while killing a lot of people who get in their way.’
While some are comparing Logan to Deadpool, the other R-rated film starring a Marvel hero from the past year, we should be looking at its similarities to another superhero film from 2017 instead; The Lego Batman Movie.
The internet’s movie rumormongers did get a few things right about Logan, Hugh Jackman’s third and supposedly final solo Wolverine movie. They did correctly predict that Logan’ female clone, X-23, would co-star in the film. They also anticipated that the movie would be loosely based on a Marvel Comics storyline called “Old Man Logan.” Of course, after that rumor was initially posted, it was also publicly debunked by one site. You win some, you lose some.
A couple weeks back, 20th Century Fox released the final runtime for Logan — and it was a few minutes longer than the version that screened for press and industry folks, leading many to speculate that there was a post-credits scene attached. Given previous rumors that Ryan Reynolds had filmed a Deadpool scene for the Wolverine sequel, it was reasonable to suspect that perhaps Logan had a teaser for Deadpool 2 attached at the end. James Mangold denied these rumors, on all counts, but we now know exactly what is attached to Logan, and it both isn’t and is what you think. Spoilers ahead!