[Mild SPOILERS for Logan ahead.]
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All good things must come to an end eventually; and unless Ryan Reynolds is able to convince Hugh Jackman to get onboard for a new Deadpool and Wolverine crossover movie, this year's Logan will serve as Jackman's swan song to his seventeen year run on the X-Men movie franchise. Fortunately, Jackman will be finishing his onscreen marathon as Wolverine with a bang, assuming that Logan lives up to the lofty expectations generated by the enthusiastic reactions to not only the film's trailers, but also to its first narrative act (which screened for the press late last year).
20th Century Fox, for its part, seems confident about what Logan co-writer/director James Mangold has produced with his second go-round on the X-Men franchise (following his work on 2013's The Wolverine); enough so for the studio to debut the film at this year's Berlin Film Festival, making Logan the first such superhero/comic book blockbuster to bow at the prestigious event. An extended plot synopsis for Logan has now been unveiled in anticipation of its showing at the event, along with the movie's semi-official runtime.
[UPDATE: 20th Century Fox is asserting that the Berlin synopsis for Logan is "totally made-up" and we have now removed the synopsis from this article, per the studio's request. Here is the official synopsis per Fox:
In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan's attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces.
The remainder of this article has been left as it was originally published.]
The character Laura aka. X-23 is played by Dafne Keen in Logan; and in the Marvel Comics universe, Laura is the result of a secretive government experiment (the 23rd such attempt, hence Laura's other name) to create a female genetic clone of Wolverine, using some of Logan's (damaged) genetic material. It's not altogether clear yet whether that comic book backstory will be carried over with Laura as she makes the jump to the big screen, or if she will have a different connection to Wolverine in the X-Men cinematic universe. The extended synopsis for Logan makes it all the more clear that Laura and Wolverine are related (something that Patrick Stewart's Professor X is seemingly aware of), but leaves their relationship up in the air otherwise.
The trailers for Logan have made it clear that Wolverine and Laura form a father/daughter-type relationship over the course of their journey together in Mangold's movie though again: are the two of them just a figurative father/daughter pair, a somewhat-literal father and daughter in the sense that Laura is Logan's (female) clone... or might Laura well be Logan's daughter in the traditional meaning of the term? The Logan extended plot synopsis' mention of a "female stranger" only raises more questions in that respect, as the woman could be Laura's mother (and/or someone whom Logan was intimate with, at some point in the past).
Themes about family and how one generation views the one before them, lie at the core of what Logan is about, narrative-wise, and the experiences that Professor X, Laura and Logan endure as a makeshift family may wind up packing all the more poignant a punch for. Still, the matter of exactly how Logan and Laura are connected to one another on the big screen, should continue to encourage some healthy discussion/speculation - while we all wait for the film to hit theaters.
NEXT: Hugh Jackman Explains 'Old' Wolverine
Source: Belin Film Festival
Update Source: 20th Century Fox
