The dark tone of Logan had executives at Fox very concerned

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Even though we're just weeks away from the release of LOGAN, I'm still surprised that Twentieth Century Fox actually let Hugh Jackman and James Mangold go ahead with an R-rated Wolverine film. Although the previous X-MEN movies may have sometimes stretched their ratings, they always remained strictly in the realm of PG-13. Throwing their flagship character into a world of blood and F-bombs will represent a big change for the X-MEN franchise, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the executives at Fox were initially very concerned about the tonal shift in LOGAN.

According to Twentieth Century Fox Film chairman Stacey Snider, who spoke during a Q&A at the Recode Media Conference, there were internal concerns that LOGAN would be too dark.

Inside, there was real consternation about the intensity of the tone of the film. It’s more of an elegy about life and death. The paradigm for it was a Western, and my colleagues were up in arms. It’s not a wise-cracking cigar-chomping mutton-sporting Wolverine, and the debate internally became, isn’t that freakin’ boring? Isn’t it exciting to imagine Wolverine as a real guy and he’s world-weary and he doesn’t want to fight anymore until a little girl needs him?

The major success of DEADPOOL must have made Fox a little less hesitant about giving the greenlight to an R-rated Wolverine film, but LOGAN is also quite a different beast than DEADPOOL was and it remains to be seen how the film will be received by the general public. What we've heard about LOGAN certainly sounds great however and I have high hopes that it will do well. Not only would it be a fitting end to Hugh Jackman's tenure as Wolverine, but it would also show studios that audiences are hungry for many different types of superhero stories.

LOGAN is set to hit theaters on March 3, 2017.