Director James Mangold have been discussing details of two deleted scenes from 20th Century Fox’s Logan. Spoilers follow. You have been warned…
During the marketing campaign for Logan, an image asked ‘Where Are All The Mutants?’, and while that question wasn’t answered specifically in the movie, it was heavily suggested that Professor Xavier had caused the death of several of the X-Men in what is referred to as “The Westchester Incident”.
Speaking to Coming Soon, director James Mangold has revealed that he originally included the Westchester scene in his script but decided to cut it as he felt it shifted the focus on the film:
“I wrote that scene. I wrote it, and at one point, it was even the first scene in the movie. It suddenly made the movie about X-Men dying, as opposed to allowing the movie to be a kind of unwinding onion, allowing you to enter the story and go, ‘Where is this going?’ It loomed so large, and I felt like it also was falling into the formula of the movies, with the big opener, that is setting up the mythology first. What if we do an opener that leans into character first? Actually underplay those things?” Let them just feel like it’s more like a normal thing, like it’s happened. And instead of underlining it, yeah. Just let it live in the background.”
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Meanwhile, Mangold also spoke to Empire about the farmhouse meal sequence, revealing that it originally included a mention of Logan’s love, Jean Grey:
“I sketched out different conversations for that scene and one of them went to a much darker place. Mrs. Munson asks Logan if he’s married, and Charles says he was, but he killed her. Of course, he wasn’t really married. But what that then spawns is Charles waxing poetic about Jean Grey. The problem was, it created an incredibly powerful lead brick in the middle of the only moment in the movie where there was a breather. Even I, with my taste for the dark, felt that it was one too many. I think [the deleted scene] will make it to the Blu-ray.”
SEE ALSO: James Mangold says he’s working on a black & white version of Logan
Are you disappointed those scenes didn’t make the final cut? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
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.
Logan reunites Hugh Jackman with The Wolverine director James Mangold and also stars Hugh Jackman, Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant, Stephen Merchant, Dafne Keen, Eriq La Salle, Elizabeth Rodriguez and Elise Neal.
Originally published March 10, 2017. Updated July 23, 2024.
