Seven years ago, James Mangold directed one of the greatest superhero films ever. Logan defied the constraints of the genre to the point that it hardly felt like a superhero movie at all; that’s partly thanks to its R-rating, but Mangold and his team also clearly cared about the story being told. Logan built on the foundation of previous X-Men films without feeling like a commercial for the next. It was designed as a swan song for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and could easily have been the final X-Men film.
But studios have to make money, and now that Marvel has the coveted rights to Fox’s X-Men characters, Jackman’s Wolverine (or, at least, one version of him) is back in Deadpool & Wolverine. While the film references the events of Logan, Mangold was uninvolved. The director has his hands full with A Complete Unknown, in which Timothée Chalamet plays Bob Dylan. It’s a straightforward biopic, but that didn’t stop Rolling Stone from asking the director if he ever considered making a musical multiverse, as A Complete Unknown could share a timeline with Mangold’s Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line.
“I don’t do multiverses,” Mangold said. “It’s weird that I’ve even worked in the world of IP entertainment because I don’t like multi-movie universe-building. I think it’s the enemy of storytelling. The death of storytelling. It’s more interesting to people the way the Legos connect than the way the story works in front of us.”
The director’s comments feel timely, as Marvel has gone all-in on its multiverse and the cameos that come with it. These crossovers can be fun, and Doctor Strange 2 even subverted the franchise’s love of cameos in an unexpected way. But in the case of Deadpool & Wolverine, it’s hard to give Marvel the benefit of the doubt. Its many references and Easter eggs may please fans, but they add little to the story, which certainly isn’t pulling the same emotional weight as Logan.
Despite the disappointment of Deadpool & Wolverine’s glossy cameo-fest, Mangold seemed to know it was inevitable. “I can’t say that there’s a part of me that doesn’t wish that we’d let it be,” he told Variety of Jackman’s return. “But there was always going to be another Wolverine. There could be a baby Wolverine and a cartoon Wolverine. As much liquid as they can squeeze out of that rag, they’re going to try to.”
It’s disappointing, but it’s the nature of the beast. Even as Marvel labors to bring a new version of the X-Men to the MCU, we still can’t shake the impact of Fox’s mutant team. There may come a time when Jackman’s Wolverine can finally, officially retire. But with the studio searching for a surefire hit, nothing is off-limits, even if it undermines the impact of far better superhero films.
