'Logan' Director Reveals What Wolverine is Afraid Of

Wolverine is the best there is at what he does, but what he does often involves being completely fearless. With Logan, director James Mangold knew he had to offer audiences a different approach to the character for Hugh Jackman's sendoff of the mutant, depicting the character confronting the thing he's afraid of: intimacy.

"Given that this was Hugh Jackman's last Wolverine movie, the question I needed to answer was, 'What is Logan most frightened of?'" Mangold shared with The Credits. "He's not frightened of the end of the world, he might welcome it. He's not frightened of his own death, he might welcome it. He's not consumed with vengeance for a specific villain, he'd rather live life in isolation. But it dawned on me: Logan is completely phobic about intimacy."

This approach proved to be effective, as the film was a critical and financial success, even earning itself an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, which was crafted by Mangold, Scott Frank, and Michael Green.

In his eight previous cinematic appearances, Wolverine was the character who was willing to go to more violent and deadly lengths to accomplish his missions, yet in Logan, he had to look out for more than just himself, ensuring the safety of his surrogate father Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and actual daughter Laura (Dafne Keen).

"We wanted to put Wolverine in a much more vulnerable state than we've ever seen him in, so we created this character piece where Logan's needed by an ailing father figure and he's needed by a daughter," Mangold pointed out. "This makes him supremely uncomfortable."

Another big change with this film is that, rather than adhering to the slightly more family-friendly adventures seen in previous films, Logan gave audiences the R-rated adventures they'd always hoped to see Wolverine embark on.

"It was never really about wanting swearing," Mangold confessed. "It was about removing the filter and letting the movie feel like it's about a loner who's carrying a lot of anger and has no filter for his rage."

Logan has already made history for being the first comic book-inspired film to earn the Adapted Screenplay nomination, with fans having to wait until March 4th to see if the film takes home the Oscar.

Do you think Logan has a chance at scoring the Oscar? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T The Credits]