When you go to a Marvel movie these days, there are a few things that you can most definitely expect. Aside from a cameo from Stan Lee, it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll be able to find some playful nods to hardcore fans and a post-credit scene to put the cherry on top. However, that isn’t always the case with the films that appear outside of Disney’s jurisdiction like in Fox and Sony’s Marvel movies. For instance, director James Mangold recently made some comments that may be disappointing to those of you who are expecting to see these Marvel trademarks in his upcoming film, ‘The Wolverine’.
Just like his star Hugh Jackman did before him, Mangold went into great detail about the next solo film for one of the X-Men’s most popular members in an in-depth interview with Collider. First, when he was asked about connecting his film to Fox’s other comic franchises, the director responded by saying, “Thoughts like that have occurred to me”. I’m wondering though which ones “occurred” to him because the only options that he really has is the Fantastic Four and the other X-Men because a majority of the studio’s Marvel film rights have reverted back to the House of the Ideas. And even if that didn’t happen, I didn’t see much chance of Daredevil teaming up with Wolverine on the big screen.
While he didn’t have much to say about Easter eggs like crossovers with other franchises and the like, he did have quite a bit to say about including tags after the credits roll. Although they’ve become commonplace in Marvel movies, Mangold reveals that he’s not really a fan of them:
“You’re thinking all different things, but I will say that for me the tags after the credits thing has never been my favorite thing in movies. To me the idea is the curtain rises and the curtain comes down. In theater, there’s the idea of the encore and I’m not opposed to it, but what I’m really focused on at this point is the majesty of the best films I see are films that don’t panhandle for an extra laugh later, but actually deliver the goods. And when the screen goes black, you go, Yes. My goal, whether there’s an egg for you later or not, is that when the thing goes black, that you go, Yes, that you say, Yes, the meal was good. I don’t need a fancy wine. I don’t need a dessert. I don’t need an aperitif. What he gave me was satisfying. That’s my hope and dream.”
Despite his dislike for them, he never says that he doesn’t have one for ‘The Wolverine’. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was one that connected Logan’s Japanese adventure to Bryan Singer’s ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’. Either way, I’m hoping that Mangold gives us a movie worthy of staying until after the credits as opposed to the terrible atrocity that Gavin Hood thrown together and called it ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’.
Do you agree with James Mangold’s opinions on post-credits scenes? Regardless of how he feels about them, do you think that there will be one in his movie? Speculate away in the usual place.
‘The Wolverine’ starring Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Brian Tee, Will Yun Lee, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, and Hiroyuki Sanada arrives in theaters on July 26, 2013.
