I don’t trust movie trailers. I’ve been tricked too many times by 90 seconds of images, cleverly cut together, that hide/sell a mediocre or bad movie. Telling a compelling 100-minute story is hard, and most fail. I just saw the trailer for the new Wolverine movie “Logan.” It had the great Johnny Cash singing “Hurt” under it. It showed a bruised, aging, weary Logan, struggling with personal loss. It looks like an intense, personal movie with only the minimum of required superhero action. It looks like a tough movie that I could love. I am hoping that this time my fears are unfounded. The word is that in 2017, in the 18th year of the X-Men movie franchise (2000-2017), this will be Hugh Jackman’s final performance as one of pop culture’s greatest characters. Logan meant a lot to us as we worked to build the stories for the 76 X-MEN:TAS episodes. He was so raw, so much the beating heart of the team, that we had to struggle not to over-use him. The movies could have screwed up Wolverine’s character . In large part thanks to Hugh Jackman, they got it right. (Few remember he wasn’t even the first choice for the role.) So I’m looking forward to next March when we get a chance to say goodbye to Jackman’s Logan. I’m hoping that he gets his farewell in a great movie.
