Why The Logan Trailer Has Us Worried
If you're pumped for the upcoming Logan film, it's understandable. The story promises to be a thrilling, emotional ride, and probably the most violent X-Men film to date. After the sleeper-hit Deadpool revealed an R-rated comic book movie could be a blockbuster, 20th Century Fox appears ready to accept that you don't have to water down superhero movie violence to make money.
That being said, some important details stand out when one views the Logan trailer multiple times — and not all of them are good. Such as ...
"Days Of Future Past" immediately looks pointless
The unofficial reason for X-Men: Days of Future Past was to revive the faltering X-Men franchise. Within the official X-Men cinematic universe, the movie saw Logan — a.k.a. Wolverine — time travel to save mutant-kind from a horrible future. At the end of Days of Future Past, it looked like Logan succeeded. But then we get this movie. Based on what little is revealed in the trailer, we come to understand that mutants are gone from the world. While there's plenty of room to speculate why mutants are practically non-existent, the fact that it happens despite the best efforts of the mutants in Days of Future Past is really sad.
Logan seems to underscore a point raised in the previous movie: horrible things happen because they're meant to happen.
Logan's healing abilities appear to be gone
A man known to be able to take practically any kind of damage and then heal himself doesn't have scars. What do we see in the Logan trailer? Scars. That's not a good sign.
First, it suggests that Logan's healing abilities have either diminished substantially or are completely gone. Second, it means that Logan is a far more vulnerable character in this movie: older, slower, weaker, and without his legendary healing abilities! That means that he might have a much harder time defending himself from enemies. It's a significant change that really raises the stakes for the few surviving heroes in this movie.
The X-Men are probably dead or will die in this movie
We only see two X-Men in this trailer: Professor X (Charles Xavier) and Wolverine. Okay, three if you count X-23, but it's important to remember that she's just a child in this film. As for the X-Men characters we've come to know, they seem to be largely absent. That probably means that they will be dead before the start of the movie. It could also mean we might have to sit through their violent, untimely deaths. It might be a good idea to bring plenty of tissues when you see this movie.
X-23's place in the X-Men universe
It was pretty obvious to hardcore X-Men fans that the little girl in the trailer is Laura Kinney, a Wolverine clone known as X-23. However, the timing of her introduction is a bit off. It's true that X-23 will get introduced at a point in Logan's life where he will need to train a successor. Unfortunately, it also means there's likely no X-Men around for her to join. This movie really feels like the end of the X-Men timeline, which means we might not get to see X-23 come into her own as a proper X-Woman.
That is, unless more time travel shenanigans occur. In addition to the events of Days of Future Past, the X-Men universe has two time traveling mutants floating around: Bishop appeared briefly in Days of Future Past, and we already know Cable is going to be in the Deadpool sequel. It's entirely possible that a post-credits scene could show X-23 repeating Logan's attempt to save the future for mutants everywhere.
This person is important -- and we have no idea who it is
You normally don't grant a cool close-up to some random person who has nothing to do with the film, so we know this man or woman is someone of great importance. (There's already speculation that this character could be Fantomex.) It's just that, thanks to their clothing, we have no idea who or what this person is. Is this mysterious figure an ally or an enemy of the movie's heroes? The inability to immediately answer that question is unsettling — which was probably the intended effect. But still, it's hard not to know.
Charles Xavier might already be dying in this scene
Based on what little we saw of Professor X in the trailer, it just doesn't look good at all for his character. We can only assume, based on his surroundings, the X-Mansion is toast. He's clearly ill and lacking proper medical care. We even see Logan carrying Xavier at one point. Was he carrying his old friend's dead body? Speaking of which, was that Charles Xavier that Logan apparently buried at the very end of the teaser?
It's hard to guess what Professor X's fate might be, but the nature of the trailer has some speculating that Xavier dies at a point during the film. Some X-Men fans believe he might be revisiting a faltering Logan to act as his conscience.
The bad guys might be terrible for all the wrong reasons
Although Logan helps to expand the list of X-Men villains we see on screen, this isn't exactly an exciting turn of events. Fox's Marvel heroes share a similar problem to their Marvel Studio counterparts — the villains tend to be kind of "meh." Magneto is the only enduring villain in the X-Men movie universe, and he spends most of his time being either an outright superhero or an anti-hero. He was technically a full-on bad guy only in the very first X-Men film.
As for Donald Pierce and his Reavers, they'll probably bring a level of menace similar to movies like Mad Max. While they may be troubling and upsetting for the purpose of Logan, there's no reason to anticipate their presence in future X-Men movies. Also, given the X-Men franchise's track record with villains, it's possible that these guys will turn out to be somewhat lackluster.
Logan might surprise us here, but let's just say our expectations of the movie's villains are really low.
Logan might not survive this movie
Yes, the movie is called Logan and he is the main character, but that doesn't mean Logan will survive to the very end. If Scream's Randy Meeks taught us anything, it's that when it comes to trilogies, all bets are off are as to who lives and who doesn't. Logan will be the third and final Wolverine spin-off. It will also be the final time that actor Hugh Jackman portrays the character that helped launch his Hollywood career. While a happy ending would see Logan surviving to raise Laura as his daughter, this doesn't look like a happy movie. We might see Logan die and young Laura left alone or in the care of another character.
This movie looks like it will be too emotionally exhausting
Logan looks like it will be every bit as violent as Deadpool. But whereas Deadpool was known for its laughs and overall irreverence, Logan looks like it will be an emotional, supremely depressing gut-punch we haven't seen from any comic book movie to date. We could blame it all on Johnny Cash's "Hurt" cover that plays throughout the trailer, but the imagery suggests this movie may be the first X-Men movie to hit everyone right in the "feels." Overall, Logan looks like it might be an intense, violent, emotionally taxing farewell from both Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart, and we are NOT ready!