[Updated] Hugh Jackman: LOGAN not beholden to existing continuity in previous X-Men films.

Update: After Hugh Jackman caused an uproar (both negative and positive) among fans with his comments about ignoring existing continuity in LOGAN, director James Mangold has since clarified that’s not exactly the case.

“[I] don’t think [he] said that exactly,” Mangold said via Twitter. “Simple fact. We take place in 2029, 5 years past anything depicted in X-Men film. Because we take place after all the other movies, we have freedom. That’s all he meant. Breathe.”

@Voldemorgoth Don't think @RealHughJackman said that exactly. Simple fact. We take place in 2029, 5 yrs past anything depicted in XMEN film.

— Mangold (@mang0ld) January 22, 2017

@TylerCobaugh @Voldemorgoth Because we take place after all the other movies, we have freedom. That's all he meant. Breathe,

— Mangold (@mang0ld) January 22, 2017

Original Article:

Speaking with Digital Spy, Hugh Jackman told the site that LOGAN is not too concerned with existing continuity set in the X-Men universe.

“When you see the full movie you’ll understand,” he said. “Not only is it different in terms of timeline and tone, it’s a slightly different universe. It’s actually a different paradigm and that will become clear.”

When Jackman told fellow producers and 20th Century Fox that this was his “last one,” they said “make the movie you want to make.

“And so Jim [Mangold] and I had this blank canvas and we wanted to make something really different. Definitely tonally different, I kept thinking The Wrestler, Unforgiven.

Explaining the meaning behind the film’s personal title, Jackman said they intended to avoid using Wolverine or X-Men in the title, having it just be “about the man” and “what the collateral damage of being Wolverine your entire life would be.”

The film is “a stand alone movie in many ways,” he said, explaining connections (or lack thereof) to other films in the franchise. “It’s not really beholden to time lines and story lines in the other movies. Obviously Patrick Stewart was in there so we have some crossover but it feels very different and very fresh.

“[Following the timelines] becomes a chess game that you try to serve, which actually doesn’t help to tell a story and it’s sort of been a bit all over the place. I’m not critical of it – X-Men was the first movie really in comic book, no one thought there’d be another and there were different directors different off shoots.”

Source: Digital Spy