Logan won't be just another superhero movie, if you believe Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds and director James Mangold. According to Mangold, Logan is more of a "contemplative character study" than the sort of frenetic action film we normally get with the superhero genre. Reynolds, who has no connection to the movie other than being a guy with a big stake in the future of all things X-Men-related, thinks Logan will be so good even the Oscars will take note.

Anticipation is clearly already high for Logan, a movie that promises to take the superhero genre in directions we haven't seen before. That sense of excitement only becomes greater each time another little nugget of info about the movie trickles out into the world, in particular high-res screenshots from the film of both the black-and-white and color variety.

Director James Mangold has given fans something else to chew on by releasing yet another image via his Twitter account @mangOld, showing Hugh Jackman's Logan looking very serious about something. What that something might be is anybody's guess, but the image once again re-confirms that this will be a grittier, more realistic take on the character of Logan/Wolverine than we've seen before. Jackman's extra-grizzled Logan here has the look of a man who has seen some stuff.

All we know about the plot of Logan is that it concerns Wolverine and Professor X (Patrick Stewart) protecting what may be a young female Wolverine clone in Laura (Dafne Keen), created by a sinister organization. That certainly sounds like a good starting-off point for a strong, character-driven action movie, and that's exactly what James Mangold is promising.

How will audiences take to a grittier, less action-oriented angle on Wolverine? Changing up the X-Men formula worked for Deadpool, but that film still leaned heavily on action and of course had loads of outrageous humor to make it more audience-friendly. If Logan truly is a "contemplative character study," it would be the first movie of its type in the superhero genre, and that makes it a little bit of a gamble no matter how you slice it.

If there's any actor out there who can pull off playing a superhero as a real human being in a quieter movie that doesn't lean on crazy action, explosive special effects and quippy humor, it's Hugh Jackman. We know from his work in other movies that Jackman has the chops to pull off a full-blooded performance, but in the X-Men and Wolverine movies so far he hasn't really been called upon to stretch his acting muscles. Logan might be the perfect opportunity for Jackman to show what he can really do with this character, and for the superhero genre to gain further legitimacy in the eyes of critics and the Academy.

Source: James Mangold