James Mangold is no stranger to franchise pictures. He’s directed two Wolverine movies, including the autumnal, R-rated send-off Logan. He also helmed Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, subbing in for no less than Steven Spielberg. But in a new interview with Variety, he seems wearily resigned to the franchise mindset that’s taken over Hollywood. He doesn’t even seem thrilled that Hugh Jackman’s X-Men character is coming back for Deadpool 3.
“I can’t say that there’s a part of me that doesn’t wish that we’d let it be,” Mangold confesses, in a bit caught by The AV Club. He then suggested his return was always an inevitability, even though Mangold gave him a moving farewell:
“But there was always going to be another Wolverine. There could be a baby Wolverine and a cartoon Wolverine. As much liquid as they can squeeze out of that rag, they’re going to try to. I don’t measure my success on a movie like Logan with whether we ended the conversation. I ended my conversation.”
Mangold doesn’t even want to do the threatened (but far from officialized) Indy spin-off starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s conspirator Helena Shaw.
“I’m not interested,” Mangold said, smiling and waving his hand dismissively. “I refuse. I just can’t do it.” He then explained the burden of making such a series. “The amount of lore and Easter eggs and fan service starts to become antithetical to any of this stuff at a certain point. It isn’t storytelling anymore. It’s large-scale advertising.”
Over his long career, Mangold has made plenty of non-franchise one-offs. There’s not going to be a sequel to his 2019 hit Ford v Ferrari, but there is already another Ferrari movie en route from an even more acclaimed filmmaker.
(Via Variety and The AV Club)
