James Mangold explains why he set Logan in the year 2029

Is everyone down off their high from seeing the new LOGAN trailer yet? No? Okay I’ll give you a second…

Great. It was all quite badass and we now have some sweet footage of Laura Kinney a.k.a. X-23 (Dafne Keen) whipping some ass with Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), as well as a much firmer grip on the plot. Now that we have a better idea of where the story is going we can now start to talk about the setting of the movie, which takes place in the near future of 2029. Director James Mangold spoke about why he decided to go so far into the future, citing 2014's DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, and how LOGAN needs to take place far enough away from that in order to feel fresh and unique unto the character:

There's an epilogue scene in Days of Future Past which is 2024, or 2023, something like that. I just wanted to get far enough past. My goal was real simple: it was to pick a time where I had enough elbow room that I was clear of existing entanglements. Part of the way I think this films stop being fresh (these films being franchise comic book movies) is when you find yourself making essentially a television series with $200 million episodes where you're literally just picking up where the last one left off and you're making a mini-series. Then, it's impossible to do something fresh, meaning essentially you're just a director on the 14th episode of a television show picking up where the last one left off and people are going to be really startled by any discontinuity or changes.

For those of you who have seen X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST you know that when the day has been saved Logan wakes up to see he is back Xaviers School for Gifted Youngsters to see that all of his friends, including Storm (Halle Berry), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Cyclops (James Marsden) and more are okay, hinting they will go on to have plenty of more fun adventures. Those of you who haven’t seen the movie, please go judge your life up to this point, watch the movie, and then come back so we can all have an adult conversation.

Everything Mangold says about this movie just gives me more confidence in its greatness. This needs to be a Logan movie, and though X-23 and Professor X (Patrick Stewart) look to have big roles, there’s a lot to hint this will explore the big lug in a focused, heartfelt way. Though I don’t have a problem with superhero movies being episodic, I do feel the time jump feels necessary to really tell a standalone story, with no recent events having to keep the character within a predicted timeline. But I will say it’s disheartening there will be no flying cars 12 years from now…

Be sure to read Paul Shirey's coverage of LOGAN, and be sure to stick with us for all your clawing needs as we work up to LOGAN's March 3 release.