Logan Photo Officially Confirms the Reavers for the Film

An official teaser trailer for Logan - the final movie starring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and the second X-Men film directed by James Mangold after The Wolverine (2013) - ought to be arriving soon, as suggested by 20th Century Fox ramping up its efforts to promote the film with a series of enigmatic black-and-white photos (release online through the Logan social media accounts). Some of these Logan images have offered more immediate insight into the movie than others of course; most notably, the ones revealing costar Stephen Merchant (Hello Ladies) as the mutant Caliban and costar Boyd Holbrook (Narcos) as a character simply identified as "Pierce".

It didn't take long for X-Men comic book savvy fans to put together that "Pierce" is likely a reference to Donald Pierce: a cybernetic villain and a member of the cybernetic thieves group known as The Reavers, who have been rumored to serve as the primary antagonists in Logan for some time now. The latest photo released for Logan has confirmed that the Reavers are indeed a part of the movie's storyline, shortly after fresh leaked photos from the Logan set - showing Halbrook and some other actors who, we can now safely assume, are playing the Reavers - made their way online too.

The following Logan image was released online through the film's official wponx Instagram account, accompanied by the simple-yet-telling single line description "Reaver." This image shows a Logan cast member dressed in armor as a member of the Reaver organization founded by Pierce in the X-Men comics... and, one assumes, in the film too.

The Reavers have been around in the Marvel comics in some form or another for some time now (as far back as The Uncanny X-Men #133 in the 1980s), but their motivations have varied somewhat throughout their different comic book iterations over the decades. Logan, for its part, is clearly taking some cues from Mark Millar's famous Old Man Logan comic story in particular, as illustrated by its futuristic neo-western setting and Wolverine's age finally being reflected in his appearance (due to his mutant healing ability having diminished, presumably).

At the same time, the inclusion of elements like the Reavers (which aren't part of Old Man Logan) further proves that Logan isn't drawing inspiration from simply one well-known Wolverine comic story, but several; something that makes it all the trickier to say for certain how, exactly, the Reavers or any established X-Men characters fit into the puzzle that is this film's narrative. Nevertheless, clues have started to emerge, painting a clearer picture of what to expect in Logan.

Some are speculating that the severed hand shown in a previously-released Logan photo belongs to Pierce, and that Wolverine is responsible for the character losing his limb (which he replaces with a robotic arm). Moreover, the Logan storyline reportedly involves Logan teaming up with Caliban and an elderly Professor X (Patrick Stewart) to rescue a young mutant (heavily rumored to be a version of Laura Kinney/X-23) from a clandestine government project. It's thus plausible that the Reavers and Pierce work for the government - something that would explain the military gear worn by the Reaver in the image above - and are tasked with hunting Logan and his allies down.

As mentioned before though, with a Logan teaser possibly right around the corner, answers should be coming sooner rather than later.