Why Doesn't Logan Have a Post-Credits Scene? Mangold Explains

CBR

By Kevin Melrose

Published Mar 5, 2017

Director James Mangold refused to include a post-credits sequence just because he was expected to do so.

Audiences have become conditioned to expect superhero movies to include post- or mid-credits scenes that set up the obligatory sequel, provide a connection to other films in a shared cinematic universe or simply deliver a lighthearted moment. However, while there is a Deadpool teaser attached to "Logan," director James Mangold was adamant that there be no sequence or cameo following the credits.

“The only way we came out with a different movie was trying to do it differently,” he told the Toronto Sun. “So I was pretty fanatical about saying, ‘If this is how these other movies are doing it, we’re going the other way.’ If there’s normally a cameo or an end-credit scene, we’re not doing that. That’s essentially turning it into a product that has to come out of the widget machine the same way every time and that’s not how the best movies are going to get made ... in any genre.”

Speculation that "Logan" would include a post-credits scene was reignited last month following news that Fox had updated the runtime of the final release, only to be quickly shot down by Mangold. Those additional minutes of course ended up being the Deadpool teaser, which was separate from the film's story.

Speaking with the Sun, Mangold said that including a post-credits scene simply because it's expected is " a good enough reason not to do it."

"And really, what are those scenes but ads for another movie?" he continued. "We were trying to make a movie that begun and ended on its own terms. There was nothing else to say, because we had said it."

As the newspaper points out, Mangold's 2013 film "The Wolverine" did feature a mid-credits scene, in which Hugh Jackman's Logan is approached in an airport by Ian McKellen's Magneto and Patrick Stewart's Charles Xavier, the latter of whom was believed dead following the events of 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand." That sequence served as a teaser of sorts for "X-Men: Days of Future Past."

“Logan” is set in the near future, years after the epilogue of 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” In it, a weary Logan, whose healing factor is failing, cares for an ailing Professor X in a hideout on the Mexican border. But Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, pursued by dark forces.

In theaters nationwide, “Logan” stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant, Dafne Keen and Stephen Merchant.