Why Caliban Appeared In Both Logan And X-Men: Apocalypse Explained

The X-Men movies franchise has never been the most consistent when it comes to character representation across films. Characters frequently show up in different movies and played by different actors with little regard for continuity.

One of the most recent examples of this is the character Caliban. Caliban, a member of the sewer-dwelling mutant tribe called the Morlocks in the Marvel Comics Universe, was played by Tómas Lemarquis in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse and by Stephen Merchant in 2017’s Logan. The X-Men: Apocalypse version of Caliban was as an eccentric information broker in the 1980s. Logan‘s version was a wry and somewhat cynical mutant helping Logan care for Professor X in Xavier’s old age and illness.

So how did two very different versions of this relatively obscure Marvel Comics character make it into two different X-Men movies? According to Logan director James Mangold, it was mostly a coincidence.

“It’s a funny, messy story of how so often these things are not as coordinated as everyone thinks,” Mangold told Nerdist at a press event. “I actually had written him into our movie, and they didn’t know [he was] in Apocalypse, and then they kind of wrote it in their movie, and they cast someone in their movie and I had not seen it and was working away on mine.”

Who knew that Caliban was in such high demand? Sure, Caliban has a long history with the X-Men and eve joined up with X-Factor, X-Force, and the Horsemen of Apocalypse, but he’s hardly the most popular mutant in the world.

Up Next: Every X-Men Movie Ranked

Logan is the biggest box-office opening of the year so far, and currently has an 88.55 ComicBook Composite score, the second-highest ComicBook Composite score of any comic book movie, and a 4.74 out of 5 user rating, making it the top rated of all comic book movies among ComicBook.com readers. Let us know what you thought of Logan by rating it below.

In Logan, 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 is directed by James Mangold, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Frank and Michael Green, from a story by Mangold, and also stars Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant and Dafne Keen.

Logan is now playing in theaters.

More Logan: Mangold Explains How Superman: The Movie Inspired Logan /Logan‘s Final Shot Was Inspired by A Classic Comic Book Cover / Mangold On The Franchise’s Future