When it was announced that Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine movie was going to be based on the comic book Old Man Logan, fans were naturally a bit cautious. The iconic story from Civil War duo Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven was full on with its violence and tone, so the question became can a PG-13 version of a hardcore story work?
Thankfully, it doesn’t look like that is a concern anymore as multiple sources are reporting that Wolverine 3 is aiming for an R-Rating. News first broke last week that Wolverine’s finale might be an R-Rated affair when a picture surfaced from Toy Fair that had the ‘anticipated rating’ listed as an R.
Set in the far future of an alternative universe, Old Man Logan catches up with our favourite member of the X-Men who is now a father and has sworn off his Wolverine ways. However, as super-villains reign supreme in this post-apocalyptic lands, Logan is forced to reawaken the beast within.
A faithful adaptation is automatically off the table as Fox don’t own the rights to many of the superheroes that featured in the comic book. Some of those characters include Hulk and Hawkeye, who both play a vital role in the story, but Mark Millar (via Box Office Buz) doesn’t believe that the exclusion of the MCU owned characters will impact the movie version.
“They’re not important to the story. The way I worked that thing is I actually structured it as, I broke it down mechanically – I figured out going from this part of America to that part of America and what he would encounter along the way, and then I added in the adversities later. Basically Wolverine doing The Road movie is the important thing and he has a friend [a blind Hawkeye] with him. But that friend could be Cyclops and he could be blind by the fact that his ruby-quartz visor is broken and he has to keep his eyes closed the whole time and everything, but still insists on driving the car they’re crossing America with. There’s lots of stuff. Instead of the Hulk, you could have the Blob or something.
Honestly, the continuity stuff is the most boring side of it. I kind of like it, keeping it in the X-Men universe a little, too, because comic fans are different from the mainstream world. I know this stuff backwards because I’ve lived my whole life loving this stuff, but most people don’t know all the minutia and everything so I think keeping it simplified and keeping it generally X-Men universe is a smarter thing to do.”
The success of Deadpool has likely put 20th Century Fox executives minds at ease that if they let Wolverine go berserk, it won’t harm the box office potential. Directed by James Mangold and possibly co-starring Patrick Stewart, Wolverine 3 is scheduled for release March 3, 2017.
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
Nerd Comments