The Script For The Follow-Up To Logan Will Focus On Laura, A.K.A. X-23

Hugh Jackman, James Mangold and producer Hutch Parker spoke about how they want to make the follow-up to Logan to focus on Laura, a.k.a. X-23.

Logan is easily one of the best films of the year. It was full of raw emotion, sadness and anger. It was basically the Wolverine movie we’ve been waiting so long for, and it just so happened to be Hugh Jackman’s last time playing the comic book superhero. However, the movie basically passed the Wolverine batton, or should I say claws, to Dafne Keen’s Laura, a.k.a. X-23. She’ll now be the protagonist in the follow-up to Logan and The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Hugh Jackman, James Mangold and producer Hutch Parker and asked them where they might take the character next.

“Patty [Jenkins’] success with [Wonder Woman] only solidifies more for studios that there’s less to fear with a female protagonist,” explained Mangold. “The more that keeps getting hit home, that ends up giving me more space turning around and going, ‘Well here we are with a female protagonist. That’s incredible. And what are we going to do with her?’ And that’s where we are with that [the Laura script] right now, dreaming.” So at the moment, it’s more about whether the studio will agree to do a fully-fledged X-23 movie led by a female actor, and thanks to Wonder Woman’s success it looks like it’s going to happen.

Dafne Keen in Logan

“Yes, there are other facets of that character and some others potentially to explore in their own way,” says Parker, who’s next film will be X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which is set to release in 2018. “It may not be in the same exact tonality or with the same genre orientations as Logan, but I think part of what has been opened up in this universe to all of us now is, drawing on different genre traditions, there are new pathways to be opened for new characters that populate this universe.”

One thing we’ve been seeing from Fox’s superhero movies is that they aren’t afraid to push the boundaries and play around with different genres. Deadpool was a full-blown action movie, full of guts, gore and profanities. Logan was also pretty brutal and full of swearing but was more of a western than a comic book movie. It looks like they’re exploring with horror for their upcoming film, The New Mutants. For all we know, Laura’s spin-off movie could end up being a political thriller or a heist movie, or even a sci-fi horror (that would be so cool).

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What would you like to see from a Laura spin-off movie? Let us know in the comments below.