While Hugh Jackman's Wolverine has had numerous instances to shine in the X-Men movie series over the last 16 years, it feels like his iteration of the character has never reached his full potential. That's because the constraints of the PG-13 rating have limited how violent and savage the mutant could be with those claws. Fortunately, next year's Logan is rectifying that for Jackman's final turn as Wolverine by making sure the spinoff is rated R. In order to do that, Jackman reportedly had to take a pay cut.
Ain't it Cool reporter Eric Vespe recently posted on Twitter that he heard from director James Mangold that Hugh Jackman "took a salary cut" to ensure that Logan received its R rating. At this point in his career, Jackman certainly doesn't come cheap, so in order to make sure a character he's both played for years and deeply appreciates is adapted properly for this last appearance, he had to accept less money for his performance.
Why would that be helpful? Well, by making Logan an R-rated blockbuster, that means not as many younger moviegoers will be able to see it in theaters, which subsequently means that it's likelier to make less money (though not guaranteed, as evidenced by Deadpool's success). If Jackman's paycheck is smaller, then 20th Century Fox can spend some of the money that was originally allocated for him on the production's budget instead, which then means that Jackman, Mangold and the rest of the cast and crew have more freedom to make the movie the way they want to rather than create a watered-down version.
Even though Hugh Jackman won't be collecting as much cash as he would have with previous X-Men movies, he can rest easy knowing that Logan will definitely earn that R rating. We won't know the full extent of the violent content until the movie is playing in theaters or a red-band trailer is released, the international Logan trailer did show the eponymous mutant popping his claws into an adversary's head. Compared to the previous Wolverine movies, it's safe to say Logan will be a more ferocious affair.
Taking place in the future, Logan will follow an older Wolverine who is living in arguably the most depressing period of his life. His healing abilities aren't working as well as they once did, Professor X is growing mentally unstable and the mutant population has dropped significantly. When Wolverine finds a young girl named Laura (better known to comics fans as X-23) who is similar to him, he'll take it upon himself to protect her from a mysterious corporation called Transigen, represented by its head of security, Donald Pierce, and its surgical head, Zander Rice.
Logan slashes its way into theaters on March 3, 2017.
