Logan director James Mangold has opened up about the movie's shocking climax and how it was easier than he thought it would be to bring an end to Hugh Jackman's iconic role.
Jackman first suited up as Wolverine in 2000's X-Men and went on to reprise his role in another eight movies. Logan served as a finale to his standalone trilogy and continued Mangold's work on The Wolverine. While Jackman became synonymous with Wolverine, the star and Mangold both agreed 17 years was long enough playing the clawed Canadian.
Speaking to ComicBook.com, Mangold explained, "It was really Hugh [Jackman] and I at first. It seemed logical, that if it were going to be his last film, that he's either going to ride off onto the horizon or die, that you need to have some kind of curtain on his story." Discussing how the story evolved, Mangold added, "You either have the Shane ending where he rides off on the mountain to parts unknown, which had largely been the way his character was resolved in every proceeding movie or you'd kill him." He then went on to illustrate the importance of providing a sense of closure, especially "if you were dealing with the legacy of Hugh's many performances and many films, and trying to set this part in some definitive way."
While Mangold expected there would be some backlash from killing one of Fox's most profitable X-Men characters, the director revealed the studio loved the idea. Mangold said that Wolverine's death not only offered a less expensive ending than other high-adrenaline movies, but it also gave fans a reason to watch Logan because "it would be the end of a legend." Logan ended with a bloody showdown between the titular character and Dr. Zander Rice's X-24 (also played by Jackman). Wolverine's heroic sacrifice culminated in an emotional final shot of Dafne Keen's X-23 turning the cross on his grave into the letter X, as a nod to his time with the X-Men.
Up there with Jean Grey's dramatic death at the end of X2, Wolverine's death delivered one of the most iconic moments in the history of the X-Men movie franchise. Although fans have expressed their hopes that Jackman will reprise the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the actor has repeatedly said he is done with Wolverine, and is "fine" with someone else taking over from him. Ironically, Sir Patrick Stewart said he would have reprised his role as Charles Xavier for the MCU, had it not been for Logan giving the character a definitive ending. As it stands, no one knows what's next for Wolverine and Logan serves as an end to Jackman's tenure.