‘Logan’ Screenwriter On Why They Cut Certain Professor X Scene

Please be aware that this article contains spoilers for Logan. 

If you’ve seen Logan, then you know the film alludes to an event that happened a year prior to the film’s timeline. The event itself involved Professor Xavier, his paralyzing mind seizures, and dead X-Men team members.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, screenwriter Michael Green has confirmed that, although we never see the tragic event happen onscreen, there were drafts of the script that contained scenes detailing what happened.

“It actually hits home a lot harder than the versions that really painted out specifically the flashback. Of course there are versions we wrote that were never filmed with the actual flashback of what happened, but I’ve found the experience of watching it is far more poignant to just know that it was something really regrettable and it was bad and most likely, friends were lost. Or maybe it was people we didn’t know.”

Logan focuses on the emotional repercussions of the event. It’s something that, in his old age and failing health, Professor Xavier seems to have blocked out or can’t remember very clearly. Green says that he knows what happened since it had been written in the script at some point, but that he’d love to see what conclusions fans draw after seeing the film.

“Nothing will be better than going online and reading fan theories about what happened at the end because I want to hear that version. I know what I think happened, I even know what did happen, but it doesn’t matter, because what’s canonized here is the emotional effect of things. I would love one day to read a beautifully drawn comic where someone actually writes out something.”

Alluding to it may have been a wise choice, but one can’t help but wonder how the scene would have played out now that we know it had been written and scrapped.

Directed by James Mangold, Logan stars Hugh Jackman, Sir Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Stephen Merchant, Richard E. Grant, Eriq LaSalle, Elizabeth Rodriguez, and Boyd Holbrook.

Logan is now playing in theaters.

Source: THR