Top 10 Logan Easter Eggs

#10: X-23

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There was nothing subtle about little Laura’s role in this film - she was at the very center of the narrative. However, as we’ve seen so many times before, putting a character in the spotlight doesn’t mean they’ve been done justice. What fans really appreciated about X-23’s depiction was the attention to detail that went into crafting her character and accompanying backstory. From her laboratory upbringing and the surgery to enhance her claws to her experience with self-harm, Logan’s Laura was heavily modeled after her character’s origin story as told in the six-part miniseries “Innocence Lost”. After Fox’s mishandling of characters past, it was nice to the source material respected with so many little nods.

#9: The Reavers

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No X-Men flick is complete without an army of henchmen for Wolverine to tear through. In this film however, we got to see Logan face off against more than cannon fodder, thanks to the inclusion of the in-canon group known as the Reavers. Granted, there are some notable differences between these villains from the late 80s and their onscreen counterparts, but for long-time X-Men readers, the remaining similarities didn’t go unnoticed. For starters, both groups are led by Donald Pierce. While the Reavers seen in Logan were downgraded from the over-the-top criminals to goal-oriented mercenaries, and largely stripped of their cybernetic enhancements, Pierce got a robotic arm as a nice connection to their origins.

#8: Power-Enhancing Drugs

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Ask a serious Marvel Comics reader and they’ll tell you… there’s plenty of precedence for mutant enhancing drugs. From street drugs like “Kick,” to the power-boosting “Banshee” of the Ultimate Universe (which was actually derived from Wolverine’s blood), chemical enhancements have proved a problem for the X-Men over the years. Funnily enough, one such substance, Mutant Growth Hormones, were central to the 2006-2007 Marvel crossover event Civil War, which was adapted for the big screen in 2016, minus the mutants of course. All that to say… Logan’s use of Dr. Cornelius’ serum was far from a deviation from the source material, especially as it related to his waning healing factor - but more on that later.

#7: Wolverine's License Plate

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This is a quick and simple one, but a great one nonetheless. In putting together Logan, director James Mangold drew on a wide variety of story arcs from the comics. Old Man Logan was fairly obvious, as was X-23’s Innocence Lost mini-series and the Death of Wolverine from 2014. But the film also drew inspiration from specific comics in subtler ways too - and it seems that Mangold wanted to make us aware of one or two in particular. On the back of Logan’s Chrysler, the license plate reads “WER 112”, which works as nod to Uncanny X-Men 112 and Wolverine 112, both of which share thematic similarities with Logan and could’ve helped Mangold shape his story.

Much like with Sam Raimi’s first two Spider-Man films, the first two X-Men installments brought to us by Bryan Singer, helped show the world that comic book movies were worth taking seriously, and could not only entertain, but make for genuinely respectable cinematic subject matter. In a nod to the very first X-Men film, Logan references one noticeably iconic set piece - the Statue of Liberty. The various timelines of the X-Men franchise can cause a fair amount of confusion, so it was nice to know that this version of Wolverine and Professor X had lived that adventure together. It was also a nice homage to the time these two actors have shared - 17 years playing X-Men together.

This is another easter egg that would’ve likely gone over the heads of all but the most detailed-oriented comic book readers but serves to prove that Mangold knows his stuff. When Logan is working as a driver, one of his contracts brings him to a cemetery, where sullenly drinks under a tree, keeping his distance from the mourners. Surely any cemetery would serve as a dark reminder to Logan of all the friends he’s lost, but the reality is, given that this is Greenwood Cemetery… he likely has more than a few friends and old acquaintances buried there. Greenwood Cemetery has been a fixture of the comics for years, appearing in Deadpool, the Fantastic Four, Ultimates and New Warriors.

#4: The Classic Costume

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It’s time to face the facts… as desperate as we may have been to see Hugh Jackman don Wolverine’s classic suit, Jackman has hung up the claws without ever donning the yellow and blue tights... or even the brown and yellow ones. As both Jackman and Mangold have made clear, they never felt that live-action Logan WOULD wear tights - a fact that they even have Logan rant about on screen. Perhaps in an effort to throw us a bone, or take one final jab, the filmmaker decided to include a doll of Wolverine in his classic costume. And you know what? We’ll take it. But we won’t forgive that scene getting deleted from the Wolverine!

Oddly enough, this one doesn’t have anything to do with X-Men, Wolverine or Marvel Comics. What makes it a standout however, is that it is a testament to James Mangold as a filmmaker and the love and care he put into crafting this final Wolverine film for Hugh Jackman and the fans. When lounging in the hotel room, playing the grandfather figure to Laura, Professor X and X-23 watch an old western, “Shane” - a film that Mangold just so happened to lean on heavily in crafting this narrative. Logan and Shane share much in common, something that isn’t lost on Laura, who actually quotes the film when saying goodbye to her surrogate father figure.

Laura wasn’t the only child to be subjected to horrible experiments at the hands of Alkali-Transigen. When she finally makes it to Eden, where she is reunited with the other mutant children who escaped, we’re introduced to their leader Rictor, who shares both a name and power set with the X-Factor and New Mutants character from the comics. However, unlike his comic book counterpart, it’s shown that Rictor was genetically cloned from Dominic Petros, AKA the earth-shaking supervillain Avalanche.

#1: The Death of Wolverine

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When Logan was killed off in the comics in 2014, he had lost his healing factor and a regen serum was used to keep him going. Sound familiar? Even more satisfying however, is the way in which this tied into 2013’s The Wolverine and Yukio’s prediction of how Logan will die. If you’ll recall, she states that he’ll die on his back, with blood everywhere, holding his own heart in his hand. A grizzly fate to be sure. But in the end, Logan dies just as predicted, in a beautiful moment where his heart is revealed not be literal, but a metaphor for his clone daughter. Talk about a fantastic bit of foreshadowing.