Explanation of Why Wolverine Has Scars in LOGAN and Why Johnny Cash's "Hurt" Was Used in the Trailer
Yesterday the first trailer was released for Logan, and in case you were wondering why Wolverine has scars all over his body, James Mangold has an answer for you. As you know, Wolverine has a healing factor that isn't supposed to leave scars. Logan takes place in the year 2024, and over the years he's obviously gone through a lot of shit.
During an interview with Empire, Mangold explained that with old age come changes to the strength of his mutant abilities. He said:
“One of the things we all thought about as we worked on this film is, well, we don’t want to rebuild everything. We want to have some questions. In order to make a different Logan, and a different tone of a Wolverine movie, we felt like we couldn’t hold on to every tradition established in all the movies religiously, or we’d be trapped by the decisions made before us. So we questioned whether Logan’s healing factor causes him to heal without even a scar. We imagined that it may have when he was younger, but with age, he’s getting older and ailing. Perhaps his healing factor no longer produces baby-soft skin. So we imagined he heals quickly, still, but it leaves a scar. The simple idea was that his body would start to get a little more ravaged with a kind of tattooing of past battles, lacerations that remain of previous conflicts.”
I actually like the fact that Wolverine has scars. It gives his character more grit and personality. This was already alluded to in the synopsis that was released where it says, "He’s sick, his powers are fading, and he heals much more slowly — and sometimes not at all." The director also explained why he used Johnny Cash's cover of the song "Hurt" in the film:
“Obviously I have a connection and a fondness for Johnny Cash, and his tone and his message and his music. But the real driver in all these decisions is trying to separate ourselves, in an accurate way, from the other superhero movies. We think we’re going to deliver something a little different and we want to make sure we’re selling audiences on the difference. Sometimes even when a movie’s a little different, the studio’s trying to market the movie just like all the others. [Cash’s] music, in a way, separates us from the standard, bombastic, brooding orchestral, swish-bang, doors opening and slamming, explosions kind of methodology of some of these movies.”
Logan is based on the Old Man Logan comic book story arc, and the movie looks absolutely incredible! It's set to be released on March 3rd, 2017.