Wolverine and Hugh Jackman have become almost synonymous since the Aussie actor first assumed the iconically pointy haircut and shiny claws in 2000's X-Men – and now he's back for another solo outing in the movie that was initially referred to as Wolverine 3.
20th Century Fox's outing will mark his ninth (and possibly final) turn as Marvel's angriest mutant. Here's everything you need to know to get up to speed on Logan:
Logan trailer: it's brilliant, but it's bleak
After much anticipation, the first trailer for Logan arrived in a tornado of 15 certificate bleakness and violence. Frankly, it looks amazing – to the score of Johnny Cash's 'Hurt', we see a beaten down Wolverine caring for an frail Professor X in the desert, before their paths cross with a young girl who is rather like Logan.
Full of pathos, laced with death (there's a funeral and all the mutants have gone, we're told), it also becomes ultra violent, explaining that 15 rating. This looks like a very grown-up Wolverine movie.
The second trailer is no less brutal, focusing more on Laura (aka X-23), the young girl taken in by Logan and Prof X who has similar powers to Logan – and no less of a temper.
Director James Mangold talked us through the trailer scene by scene, introducing us to Laura, Boyd Holbrook's Donald Pierce and Richard E Grant's shady Dr Zander Rice, who we glimpse for the first time.
What to Read Next
A third teaser was released at the Super Bowl and if you were in any doubt that this was going to be a serious, violent and emotional journey then frankly, you've not been paying attention. This teaser gives us our first proper look at Stephen Merchant's Caliban. He doesn't look well... *sad face*
Related: Logan doesn't have a post-credits scene.
Logan release date: it's Springtime for Wolverine
![[GIF] Wolverine in X-Men: Apocalypse](https://hips.hearstapps.com/digitalspyuk.cdnds.net/16/20/1463667065-x-men-apocalypse-wolverine.gif?resize=980:* "[GIF] Wolverine in X-Men: Apocalypse")
Logan lands on March 1, 2017, in the UK and March 3, 2017, in the US, putting its release between Lego Batman and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.
Shooting began in May 2016 in New Orleans and finished in August, finally liberating Hugh Jackman from his Logan beard (maybe for the last time, sob).
Logan cast: The last of the old guard
X-Men: Apocalypse might have featured a cast of almost completely different faces from Fox's original 2000 film, but there are still two actors carrying the torch 16 years later in Logan.
One is of course Hugh Jackman, who has been saying this will be his last outing as Wolverine – though we've definitely heard that one before.
The other is Patrick Stewart, who in May 2016 confirmed the "worst kept secret" that he is back in the wheelchair as Professor Charles Xavier. Both have been photographed on set, with Xavier looking very much the worse for wear.
Narcos star Boyd Holbrook is on board as a "relentless, calculating and intense head of security for a global enterprise", who it turns out is mutant-hating cyborg Donald Pierce.
Also featuring – none other than Richard E Grant as a "villainous mad-scientist type". We theorised that he would play Mister Sinister (more on him later), but a recent Instagram post suggests that he is Doctor Zander Rice, one of the scientists who was involved in the creation of Wolverine's clone Laura/X-23, played by Dafne Keen. More on her later, too.
Related: 9 things we learned about Logan from director James Mangold
And Grant isn't the only surprising British casting, with Stephen Merchant shaving his head for a role in the movie, which is believed to be albino mutant Caliban. Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal and Orange is the New Black's Elizabeth Rodriguez have also signed on in mysterious roles.
James Mangold, who directed the reasonably well-received The Wolverine, is back in the saddle for the movie, which was written by newcomer David James Kelly and... er... Green Lantern's Michael Green.
Logan plot: Old Man X
The film will run for a lengthy 2 hours and 15 minutes, but what's it about?
"The plot is unknown," is all IMDb has to say on Logan, but we think we can do a bit better than that.
The film is set in 2029, and not quite in the same universe as the other X-Men films, according to Jackman.
A long-standing rumour was that it would be based on Civil War writer Mark Millar's 'Old Man Logan' storyline – which is set in a post-Apocalyptic future where an even more grizzled Wolverine sets out on a mission of revenge. This idea was borne out by producer Simon Kinberg's claim that the movie "takes place in the future". The first look has some similarities – and many differences – to that storyline.
Recent rumours suggest we'll see a tired, hard-drinking Logan who's healing powers are not what they once were, looking after Professor Xavier. We're pretty certain that their relationship is going to make us cry.
Meanwhile, mutant births have drastically decreased and the government is running a dubious weapons programme which turns mutant kids into killing machines.
Keen's Laura is one of the kids in question. She's apparently not specifically called X-23 – a female clone of Wolverine created and raised as an assassin by Weapon X who has been rumoured to appear – but she is a mutant who has 2 claws instead of 3. Which sounds a whole lot like X-23.
This would still fit with Apocalypse's post-credits scene, which saw a Weapon X agent storing samples of Logan's blood.
The agent's briefcase was marked 'Essex Corporation', which has been confirmed by X-Men director Bryan Singer to relate to Logan's villain. That would be Nathaniel Essex – better known as the aforementioned insane geneticist Mister Sinister – who has his own in-comic links to Weapon X.
But don't get too excited, as it looks like he isn't going to show up in Logan.
Related: Logan director James Mangold gives us a scene-by-scene breakdown of his explosive new trailer
Merchant has revealed a shot of Caliban – who we first met in X-Men: Apocalypse portrayed by Tómas Lemarquis – hidden under hat and mask. It's not clear what he role will be in the film at this point, but we're getting some serious Wild West vibes.
Another rumour has it that the mutant-hating cyborg terrorists the Reavers will have a part to play in the movie – which is supported by Holbrook's casting as their leader, Pierce.
We've also been promised a 'Western tone' for Logan, whatever that means. Saloon doors and Stetsons come to mind, but that's probably not it. We've heard whispers that this will be darker that the previous films and feel very different, and the first trailer definitely bears this out. Just don't call it a superhero movie.
What's certain is that it is set some time after the 'happy' epilogue of X-Men: Days of Future Past, where Logan was reunited with his formerly dead mutant friends. So much for happy endings.
Fox second R-rated spinoff
Almost certainly in response to the insane success of Ryan Reynolds's Deadpool earlier in 2015, Logan will also be rated R, which will give Wolvie a chance to finally indulge in the ultra-violence he is known for.
Wolverine is (alongside the Punisher) one of Marvel's most brutal heroes, an aspect of his personality his two PG-13 solo outings haven't been able to fully explore. So far it looks as though Fox is leaning hard on a serious and brooding tone (with just a hint of indie road movie comedy thrown in), rather than borrowing from Deadpool's slapstick humour as well.
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