This weekend, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is back again for the release of Deadpool and Wolverine. The superhero movie adds Ryan Reynolds’ lovable antihero into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, along with the X-Men fan-favorite after Jackman gave a final salute (or so with thought) with 2017’s Logan. As critics name Deadpool and Wolverine the “ultimate Deadpool movie,” Logan’s director James Mangold has shared his thoughts on cinematic universes.
Now James Mangold is getting ready to make a very different movie: the Bob Dylan biopic with Timothée Chalamet. As the first A Complete Unknown trailer came out on Wednesday, Mangold was asked if he’d create his own “cinematic universe” by bringing back Joaquin Phoenix’s Johnny Cash from Walk The Line. Here’s how he responded to Rolling Stone:
I don’t do multiverses. … It’s weird that I’ve even worked in the world of IP entertainment because I don’t like multi-movie universe-building. I think it’s the enemy of storytelling. The death of storytelling. It’s more interesting to people the way the Legos connect than the way the story works in front of us.
While Mangold wasn’t taking directly about the MCU, or any other multiverse specifically for that matter, his response definitely speaks to his own take on the popular tool studios have been using as of late. The director was certainly part of a Marvel movie with Logan, but in a way that speaks to this perspective. The movie was nearly devoid of cameos, references or interconnected moments. Heck, the X-23 movie that may have sprouted from Logan never happened (even though it was apparently “very much a reality” once). As Mangold continued:
For me, the goal becomes, always, ‘What is unique about this film, and these characters?’ Not making you think about some other movie or some Easter egg or something else, which is all an intellectual act, not an emotional act. You want the movie to work on an emotional level.
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With that in mind, don’t expect to catch James Mangold helming an MCU movie anytime soon. The filmmaker is very much speaking to a problem many take with multiverse films over the years. Sometimes it can feel like each entry is a commercial for the next one rather than focusing on a great central storyline. The really good ones set themselves apart by finding their own emotional story rather than relying on the easter eggs or storylines that play into other movies.
While James Mangold may not be a multiverse kind of guy, he’s given his blessing for Hugh Jackman’s return for Logan before. The director previously said he and Jackman, who he considers a longtime friend, talked a lot about “how joyful a kind of Midnight Run or 48 Hrs. with Deadpool and Logan would be” and “completely” understands Reynolds, Jackman and director Shawn Levy “chasing that idea” with Deadpool and Wolverine.
Deadpool and Wolverine hits theaters this weekend! And you can look forward to Mangold’s next movie, A Complete Unknown this December.
