Logan will give us our first cinematic story featuring X-23. If things go well, it’s possible that she could steal the spotlight from the film’s title character! Entertainment Editor Drew Dietsch gives his thoughts on why X-23 might be a better Wolverine than Wolverine himself! And don’t worry, he’ll explain who X-23 is for anyone who isn’t in the know.
So I’m watching the trailers for Logan thinking, “This all looks pretty cool! A Western-influenced, R-rated Wolverine story that is poised to be Hugh Jackman’s last outing as the marvelous mutant? I’m down!” And then all of sudden, BAM! Who’s this little girl kicking ass like it’s nothing? She’s flippin’ around all over the place! And did she just decapitate some guy? Is that a dude’s head?!?
As soon as those two claws popped out of her fist, it was clear that Logan would be giving X-23 a.k.a. Laura Kinney her big screen debut. But who is X-23? As far as the comics continuity is concerned, she’s a clone of Logan himself, an attempt to replicate the Weapon X project that gave birth to Wolverine. You remember that? Shirtless Hugh Jackman in a big tank of water? Mmm. Uh, anyways, she starts out life as a hired assassin but eventually finds her way to the Xavier Institute and her sorta-kinda papa, Logan. But not before killing her mother Sarah thanks to a ‘trigger scent’ that sends her into a berserker rage. So sad.
After the death of Wolverine – uh, spoilers for ‘The Death of Wolverine’ – X-23 took over the familiar yellow and blue mantle and is currently doing her DNA dad proud. But what does this mean for her movie counterpart?
For starters, it’s possible that she could do the same thing and become the new cinematic Wolverine. That’d be awesome! Since she’s being introduced in an R-rated film, there’s no reason she couldn’t go on to be in other R-rated features. It’d be nice to see a young woman being as badass as… or hell, even more badass than any male action star. We almost got that with Hit-Girl in the Kick-Ass films and then… Yeah, moving on.
There’s also an opportunity to do some darker storylines that Hugh Jackman’s Logan never really got the chance to indulge in. X-23’s past as an assassin could give us some enemies out for vengeance. That’s always tons of fun! I mean, let’s be honest, old Logan never really had the best rogues gallery to go up against. “I’m a big robot samurai!” “I’m the worst version of Deadpool you could possibly imagine!” Giving X-23 a real big baddie would go a long way in establishing her as a fearsome hero in her own right.
And from what we’ve seen, her action scenes are the most exciting in any Wolverine film. If we could get Logan director James Mangold or even another great action director behind the camera, there’s the potential for her to showcase some of the best fight sequences in any X-Men film.
X-23 is looking to be the breakout star of Logan and if she is, she could very well be on her way to becoming a better Wolverine than Wolverine ever was. We’ll find out when Logan hits theaters on March 3rd.
