20th Century Fox released a new trailer to the next, and promoted as final, Wolverine movie starring Hugh Jackman titled simply as “Logan.” In it we got a more in depth look at the relationship Logan will be sharing with Laura Kinney (his female clone known as X-23) and how the Reavers are the main threat after both of them. While that all further built excitement for an adaption of the Old Man Logan comic the thing that caught my eye was Professor X’s role in the film, specifically when it comes to the fate of Professor X before the movie.
Now before I dig into this theory I want to go into Logan’s official synopsis, which Hugh Jackman on his Twitter account. It reads as follows:
“In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border.
But Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces.”
Now from the above statement it does seem that Professor X is alive, though just barely hanging on. But even with this said in the two trailers we have had thus far Professor X never interacts with anyone other than Logan, as seen in the below image.
As you see in the above image where Logan is talking about the X-Men comic that Laura was reading not being factual Laura does not act ever look at Professor X. Even the way it is shot, it looks like Professor X is just an observer in all of this as Logan and Laura are actually alone in the room together.
This was not just shown in the scene between Logan and Laura in the room with Professor X.
In a dinner scene, which we saw in the first trailer, there is a character, played by Eriq La Salle, that has been added to the proceedings. This small addition to the story makes Laura scanning the room to smile mean she isn’t actually looking at Professor X but Logan and whoever Eriq La Salle is playing. Even Eriq’s character, who is sitting closest to Professor X, never actually looks at Professor X from what we see. Instead his attention is only on Logan and Laura.
These are the only two scenes in which we ever see Professor X interacting with in some way with someone other than Logan it’s clear that he is actually not there at all. Instead Professor X is actually just in Logan’s head as a Jimmy Cricket-type character as Logan can’t fully accept he is alone after all the X-Men passed away.
Professor X being dead would not be out of the question given that he would actually be one of the first X-Men that would be killed by the Reavers. We even see what looks like Professor X’s death in the above image from the first trailer where we see the Reavers about to kill him. And if Logan really is the last X-Men Professor X definitely be the first one targeted given that he would’ve warned the X-Men about the Reavers attack on them.
This would also explain why Logan is so severely depressed and alone when we see him visiting the graveyard, most likely where the graves of his X-Men teammates are located. And because of his own intense depression after seeing the only ones he has ever seen as family die around him he actually created Professor X as a figment of his imagination. This would allow him to feel like he still has a connection to his past life while also punishing himself in a way as the imaginary Professor X tries to push Logan to accept the reality of his situation.
And as we see throughout the trailer, Professor X mainly pops up to push Logan to accept Laura as someone that could be a daughter for Logan. This would play into one of the elements of the Old Man Logan comics as Logan was doing everything for the family he built in the post-apocalypse. Given that James Mangold confirmed that the film takes place in 2029, about 5 years after the epilogue of X-Men: Days of Future Past, in an interview with Comicbook.com there hasn’t been a lot of time past. And since there is such a short time jump Logan hasn’t had the time to build a family, giving the ghost Professor X to push Logan to accept Laura as a daughter in a Jimmy Cricket-like manner.
Now this could not turn out to be true when we see Logan in theaters. Personally I hope this is the direction James Mangold goes Logan with Professor X’s character. It would add a unique angle to how we have seen Patrick Stewart portray the character in the past while adding to Logan’s current state of mind.
What do you think? Are you excited for Logan? Did anything else catch your eye in the two Logan trailers?
