Rice unleashes X-24, a clone of Logan in his prime and his alternative to the child program, who murders Will's family and Xavier, stabbing Will and capturing Laura. [116][117] Also by April, Richard E. Grant was cast as a villainous mad scientist,[118][119] and Stephen Merchant had also been cast.

"[279], Brian Truitt of USA Today said, "Easily the best Wolverine outing, Logan is [the] Dark Knight of the mutant-filled X-franchise, a gripping film that transcends the comic-book genre by saying something important. The top openings were in China ($46.3 million), the U.K. ($11.4 million), Korea ($8.2 million), and Russia ($7.1 million). [261], Males comprised a bulk of the audience demographic during its opening weekend, with 63%, while females comprised 37%, with 83% of the audience being between 18 and 44 years of age. [92] Jackman concluded by highlighting that the success of the script development would determine whether Jackman would return at all:[93] "I haven't signed on. For Logan, his aim was to set frames that are descriptive, and evocative of comic-book panels and classical filmmaking.

The Reavers arrive, but Xavier has a seizure which incapacitates everyone except Logan and Laura, who kill the attackers and inject Xavier with his medication. [133], On March 5, 2015, James Mangold anticipated that filming would begin "early next year. Laura takes him to a doctor and persuades him to prove that the site in North Dakota is not Eden. [206][207][208] In the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, the film was preceded by a short film, Deadpool: No Good Deed. And ideas. While the debut was not enough to break any significant records, it ranked as the second-biggest opening weekend for a Hollywood release in the January–March quarter, behind Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. [282] Germain Lussier of io9 said, "Logan is beautiful, sophisticated, and still a kick-ass superhero film".

[196], Logan premiered at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2017, in Berlin, Germany,[197] where it was selected to be screened out of competition[198][199] alongside The Bar, Final Portrait, The Midwife, T2 Trainspotting, and Viceroy's House,[200][201] before screening in the United States, where it was given a wide release on March 3, 2017.

[184], The film takes visual, tonal and thematic inspiration from classic western and noir cinema, with director James Mangold having stated that Logan's influences included "visual reference points" of cinema, citing Shane (1953), The Cowboys (1972), Paper Moon (1973), The Gauntlet (1977), Unforgiven (1992), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), and The Wrestler (2008). As a result, the comic book covers and pages seen in the film were made specifically for it, by writer Joe Quesada and artist Dan Panosian.

[249] Two days before the film's release, ticket selling site Fandango reported that the film was outpacing all previous X-Men movies (except Deadpool) at the same point in their sales cycle.