Characters / X-Men Film Series: Wolverine

aka: Wolverine

X-Men Film Series Main Character Index
Main Characters: X-Men | Professor X | Magneto | Wolverine | Mystique | Jean Grey | Deadpool
Original Timeline: X-Men | Free Mutants | Other Mutants | Brotherhood | Weapon X | Humans | Hellfire Club
New Timeline: X-Men | New Mutants | X-Force | Apocalypse and His Followers | Transigen | Other Mutants | Humans | Weapon X | D'Bari | New Mutants Villains
Other Timelines: Earth-17040 | Earth-17372

Marvel Cinematic Universe Main Character Index > Heroic Individuals and Organizations > Other Superheroes (Jane Foster | Robbie Reyes | Xu Shang-Chi | Kate Bishop | Moon Knight | Kamala Khan | Wade Wilson | James "Logan" Howlett)

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James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine

"I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn't very nice."

"The whole world's goin' to hell, and you're just gonna sit there? Let's go."

^{Click here to see him in Deadpool & Wolverine}
"Trust me, kid, I'm no hero."

Birth Name: James Howlett

Known Aliases: "Weapon X", "The Wolverine", "The Lone Wolf"

Species: Human mutant

Citizenship: British, Canadian

Affiliation(s): US Army (formerly), Team X (formerly), X-Men

Portrayed By: Hugh Jackman; Troye Sivan (young)

Voiced By: José Arenas (X-Men), Humberto Solórzano (X2 to Apocalypse) (Latin-American Spanish); Gabriel Jiménez (European Spanish); Joël Zaffarano (French); Isaac Bardavid (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appearances: X-Men | X2: X-Men United | X-Men: The Last Stand | X-Men Origins: Wolverine | X-Men: First Class | The Wolverine | X-Men: Days of Future Past | Deadpool 2 ^note archive footage | Deadpool & Wolverine

"Nature made me a freak. Man made me a weapon. And God made it last too long."

The closest the X-Men film series has to a conventional protagonist. Logan is a tough, rugged, belligerent loner who has lived for fifteen years without memory of who he is, apart from his dog tags marked "Wolverine" and an adamantium-encased skeleton (as well as adamantium covering his bone claws). He was born in 1832 with the ability to heal rapidly from numerous injuries, including the surgery that bonded the metal to his skeleton, and that ability also prevents him from aging. He also has enhanced, animal-like senses.

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A-F

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: His claws, which are coated in adamantium. While not like his comic counterpart, especially since his claws are sharp only at the tips, they have been shown sharp enough to cut through flesh and bone in one strike, and is capable of cutting into rock. Shortly after he receives his adamantium infusion in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he slices up several items in a farmhouse bathroom (including a porcelain sink) with his now impossibly sharp claws, despite applying what appears to be no more than the force required to move an unrestrained arm. By the end of The Wolverine, however, the injuries Wolverine sustained in his battle with the Silver Samurai leaves him with his normal bone claws. He somehow got them back in the Bad Future of Days of Future Past, likely with the help of Magneto.
• Achilles in His Tent: In The Wolverine, he has quit the X-Men for at least a year, and isolates himself within the Yukon wilderness because he is unable to cope with his guilt for being forced to kill Jean Grey.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: In the comics, Wolverine is stocky, short and not a conventionally attractive man; while he has many conquests, they're exclusively attributed to him being a Kavorka Man. Here, he's a Tall, Dark, and Handsome Hugh Jackman, who is so tall that castmate James Marsden had to stand on boxes to not be dwarfed by him.invoked
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the comics, his healing factor tried to heal any emotional harm by erasing all memory of traumatic events. This is not the case here, and instead Logan lives for over a century remembering everything he's gone through until he loses his memories in Origins.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: His time in the Weapon X program. In Origins, while horrific, the adamantium bonding process is much less brutal, and he escapes immediately. In the comics, he isn't duped into joining Weapon X, but is rather abducted and tortured horribly before, during and after the main procedure. Likewise, he doesn't escape by jumping down a waterfall, but is instead left naked in the freezing Canadian winter with total amnesia.
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: As the movies went on, his hairstyle became more and more toned down and normal, though he did have his signature pointed hair in the first few movies.
  • Likewise, his mutton chops are much longer, with only his upper lip and chin being clean-shaven. However in the comics, where Wolverine usually wears a mask, his sideburns are shorter as to not show through the mask.
• Adaptational Badass: Overall, this Wolverine is depicted as being more dangerous than his comics counterpart during his early publication days. His physical abilities are clearly superhuman, his healing factor allows him to take more damage, and his Berserk Mode is depicted as The Juggernaut.
• Adaptational Curves: While he's definitely got an impressive build, it's nothing compared to how absurdly muscular he is in the comics. This is because Logan in the comics, despite being a full foot shorter than Hugh Jackman still weighs 15lbs more without even factoring in the adamantium. Simply put, 195lbs of muscle is already big, put it on a 5'3 frame and it's insane.
• Adaptational Dumbass: Downplayed; he's no idiot, but he doesn't demonstrate his comic counterpart's worldliness.
• Adaptational Heroism: In the comics, Pre-Weapon X mind wipe, Wolverine was an outright horrible person, almost on par with Sabretooth, with his most villainous action probably being what he did to Frank Simpson (kill his nanny, drive his dad into suicide and horribly torture the young man into a relentless killing machine). This violent and unhinged past of his is even alluded to by Stryker in the second movie to the amnesiac Wolverine. Movie Wolverine on the other hand was always the Morality Pet for his slowly deranging brother and the Token Good Teammate of Team X.
• Adaptational Modesty: His suit in Deadpool & Wolverine is based on his iconic "yellow spandex" from the comics, but for most of its screentime it has full-length sleeves. This change was made so Hugh Jackman, who has dealt with skin cancer caused by sun exposure, could be more covered up to protect his health.
• Adaptational Nationality: A minor case, inadvertently cause by Wolverine's Age Lift. This version was born in what is now the Northwest Territory in 1832, as opposed to the comic character's birthdate of 1882. The problem comes with the unification of Canada in 1870; before that point, what is now the Northwest Territory would have been the northwestern territories of British North America, making this version of Wolverine British by birth. In any case, Logan identifies as Canadian.
• Adaptational Protagonist: The protagonist of the original Days of Future Past comic was Kitty Pryde, however, it's changed to Logan and Charles for X-Men: Days of Future Past. This is because Kitty was largely Out of Focus for the X-Men film series, so the plotline wouldn't make as much sense to wider audiences if it was starring her. She is still the catalyst for Time Travel in the movie.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Sabretooth is his brother, unlike in the comics. In the comics, Sabretooth was supposed to be revealed as Logan's father, which never came to be. Later he was implied to be Logan's half-brother Dog, which the movies ran with, however the comics ended up confirming Dog Logan isn't Victor Creed, despite their similarities.
• Adaptational Skill: Inverted; he isn't Cunning Linguist like in the comics.
• Age Lift: Because of his healing factor, it's not that significant, but this version of Wolverine, who was born in 1832, is 50 years older than the comic version, who was born between 1882 and 1885.
• Affectionate Nickname: Victor calls him Jimmy.
• The Aloner: Leaves the X-Men in The Wolverine, as he wants to be by himself. Also showed signs of being one in the previous films.
• Alternate Self: He has two: one from the new Alternate Timeline created from Days of Future Past who is briefly seen in the film and makes a cameo appearance in Apocalypse before seemingly being erased when the main Logan takes his place in 2023, and the version from the Alternate Universe seen in Logan, who is detailed in his own folder.
• Amnesiac Hero: He becomes this in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and in X-Men: Apocalypse.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: He embodies the ferocity of the animal he uses for his codename.
• Anti-Hero: He'll do good things, but clearly doesn't care much about it.
• Artistic License – Biology: The X-Men movies having Logan's claws come out between his knuckles introduces some anatomical oddities.
  • The X-ray of Logan's arm◊ in X-Men not only has the ends of the claws inside his hands, the implants are pushing his forearm bones far enough apart to dislocate them from his wrists.
  • In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, just after Logan receives the adamantium, the brief X-ray scene of the claws extending shows them dislocating his forearm bones from the wrist and rearranging his wrist bones as they cut through the joint.
• The Atoner: In The Wolverine, he goes to Japan to face his guilt for killing Jean Grey and to receive help from an old friend who might have the means to remove his Healing Factor and make him mortal.
• Badass Biker: Often drives a motorcycle.
• Badass Teacher: He sarcastically claims to be an art teacher in X2: X-Men United, and serves as a substitute for Cyclops in X-Men: The Last Stand. In the new future created at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past, it's explicitly stated that he's the history teacher.
• Bash Brothers: In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he and Victor Creed do this for the first fifteen minutes of the movie. The opening sequence is a battle Montage through The American Civil War, WW1, WW2 and The Vietnam War! They also come back together briefly at the end, albeit for a mutual gain.
• Beard of Sorrow: In The Wolverine, Logan starts out with a shaggy one, likely resulting from the events of X-Men: The Last Stand.
• Beast Man: Though not as exaggerated as Sabretooth or Beast, he has animalistic features, such as his facial hair.
• Berserk Button: And not a hard one to press, either. Just getting him wound up seems to suffice, although he has some specific triggers:
  • Hurting or threatening his friends.
  • Threatening a woman.
  • Harming defenseless animals and making them suffer.
  • Hearing Stryker order for his memory to be wiped really fucked him off.
• The Berserker: Often flies into a rage when he's in a fight.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: His adamantium claws, duh.
• Blessed with Suck: Cool as his claws are, his hands hurt every time his claws come out.
  Rogue: When they come out...does it hurt?
  Logan: Every time.
• Breakout Character: Come on, it's Wolverine! He holds the record for appearing in the most amount of films and the only one where he is played by the same actor across both series, not to mention having his own trilogy of spin-off films centered on his solo adventures. Even when he doesn't have a central focus, he'll often be added in as a sneaky cameo like in X-Men: First Class or X-Men: Apocalypse. Then there's Deadpool, in which he doesn't physically appear, but still gets brought up by the titular character (and Hugh Jackman) a lot, mainly due to the Merc with a Mouth considering Wolverine (or Hugh Jackman) a Sitcom Arch-Nemesis of sorts to him, and Deadpool 2 features him via archive footage from X-Men Origins: Wolverine when Deadpool time-travels to kill Weapon XI. Finally, Deadpool & Wolverine sees him appear with Deadpool in a live action film for the first time.
• Brought Down to Badass:
  • In The Wolverine, his Healing Factor is dialed down to near-human levels. While his adamantium skeleton and multiple lifetimes of traumatic injury have rendered him superhumanly strong, tough, and resistant to pain, he's still left considerably weaker since his injuries accumulate rather than healing automatically.
  • In the past timeline of X-Men: Days of Future Past, which is before his adamantium infusion, he loses the considerable advantage it affords him in exchange for a moderately better Healing Factor, which doesn't really balance it out. He ends up playing a supporting role and badly loses the two real fights he gets into.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: He's near-invincible in a fight and he can be very ill-mannered in social situations, but deep down, he's actually quite sweet and caring. Those who are lucky enough to see his softer side include Rogue, Jean and Xavier. Although there's a part of Logan which will always be "wild," the Phoenix points out to him that Professor X has succeeded in "taming" him.
• Butt-Monkey: Spends most of Logan getting insulted, hunted down, physically abused, losing most of his needs, dealing with his feral (more so than him) daughter and eventually dies. It alternates between humorous and heartbreaking to see the once badass mutant reduced to this.
• Cain and Abel: With his significantly more unhinged and murderous brother, Victor Creed.
• Cartwright Curse: Silverfox, then Jean. Averted, surprisingly given the source material, with Mariko.
• Chick Magnet: Rogue had a crush on him, Jean flirts with him, Mystique attempted to seduce him, Yukio seems to have feelings for him, Kayla was his girlfriend, plus he had a fling with Mariko and Gwen (the mob boss' daughter) and was with Storm in between movies and in the future in Days of Future Past.
• Cigar Chomper: He is occasionally seen with a cigar in his mouth.
• Cool Old Guy: While he looks forty, he's over 170 in the original trilogy.
• Cool Shades: In 1973, he sports fashionable '70s-style sunglasses.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His past history of fighting in the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and his past work with Team X. He loses his memory of this in Origins, but that simply leaves him with nightmares of his Mysterious Past and an inability to settle down while eventually ending up a cage fighter.
• Deadpan Snarker: Often makes snide remarks.
• Decoy Protagonist: In X-Men: Days of Future Past. Although he starts out as the main character, Charles Xavier is the true protagonist of the movie. He's just there only to help motivate Charles to change the future. And when the final battle begins, Magneto simply impales him with rebar and throws him into a nearby river, quickly ending his importance in the film.
• Defrosting Ice King: Towards Xavier. He is the recipient of this in X-Men: The Last Stand. It's alluded to when the Phoenix (who is presumably using her telepathy) says to Wolverine, "What, you think [the Professor's] not in your head, too? Look at you, Logan. He's tamed you." Unbeknownst to both Wolverine and the audience, he has grown to love Xavier as a friend, and this finally comes to light after Logan crumbles emotionally alongside Storm after Charles is murdered. This is the first time in the original trilogy where Wolverine had displayed this much vulnerability towards a male character.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: Due to his Healing Factor, he does this on occasion. In the first movie, he has to pierce his claws through his body to cut the restraints Magneto has him in.
• Dented Iron: By the time of Logan, his healing factor is not working anywhere near as well as it used to, and as a result his body is covered in scars. Also, by Caliban's offhand mention of witnessing Logan wiping pus away from unhealed exit wounds between his knuckles, the cuts and gashes are also frequently getting infected.
• Deprogram: A young Jean Grey helps him regain a piece his humanity in Apocalypse, after the Weapon X project has successfully mentally reduced him to a dehumanized feral attack dog.
• Determinator: To put it simply, unless you are Magneto, you won't stop him.
• Deus Angst Machina: With the mutant race going extinct, Xavier's brain deteriorating in such a way that it causes him to kill seven of the X-Men, and Logan's healing factor beginning to fail it would be understandable if Logan thought the universe were out to get him.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Logan's love for Jean Grey will always go unrequited, even in the "good" ending in Days Of Future Past.
• Discard and Draw: X-Men: Days of Future Past gives him a unique example when he travels back to before his time with Weapon X. While in most cases, not having his Adamantium skeleton would be a net negative, here it means that Magneto can't neutralize him quite as easily as in the other films. He still manages to, however.
• The Dog Bites Back: The Weapon X project stripped him of his humanity and turned him into a savage killing machine. Once Kurt, Scott, and Jean free him, he slaughters every last one of the soldiers but Stryker.
• Doesn't Like Guns: No so much doesn't like them as has no use for them, as his nigh indestructible nature allows him to easily close the gap with any gunman. The only time Logan was seen using guns was in flashbacks to the wars he's served in, where he was trying to hide his powers.
• Doom Magnet: Innocent people or people he cares about tend to die around him.
• Drink-Based Characterization: His strong preference for beer stems from his Canadian background, and it's also an indicator that he has lived for many years as a vagabond. Whiskey also seems to be a secondary drink of choice as his shack is littered with bottles.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In the finale of X-Men: Days of Future Past, he wakes up in the Sentinel-averted future to find all the X-Men and children at Xavier's school. Since he's the history teacher, he's settled and content.
• Everyone Has Standards: Though Logan has had sex with many beautiful women, and has no issue with putting moves on people who are already in relationships (as seen with Jean Grey), he's pretty disgusted when Mystique decides to try to seduce him during the events of X2, especially when she shapeshifts into the much younger Rogue to try to convince him to engage with her.
• Eyes Always Averted: 6'4" Hugh Jackman pulled off looking smaller and more intimidating in part by looking down. The downward look appears more intimidating and thus sold Jackman as scrappier and more aggressive than he looks in real life.
• Flipping the Bird: Uses his middle claw to flip off Cyclops after breaking a metal detector with his claws (Cyclops was about to tell him off for that).
• Foil:
  • To the younger Magneto in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Both are violent individuals who love Xavier, but whereas Jerk with a Heart of Gold Logan possesses Undying Loyalty towards Charles, Jerk with a Heart of Jerk Erik is quick to betray him.
  • To Charles Xavier, as while both were mutants born to wealth and are a case of Adaptational Nationality in this continuity, that's where the similarities end. Xavier is a psychic Wide-Eyed Idealist determined to create peace between mutants and humans, while Logan is a cynical Anti-Hero and Animal-Themed Superbeing who at first struggles to believe in Xavier's vision.
• Friend to All Children: At Xavier's school. Even when turned into more of a beast than a man in Apocalypse, he hesitates at the thought of harming children long enough for Jean to help him.

G-L

• Good Flaws, Bad Flaws: His fondness for cigars is part of his macho image.
• Good is Not Nice: The quote underneath his picture says it all.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: He gets thrashed the most in all the films. Anyone else would die from the injuries he experiences. Taking away his healing factor in The Wolverine proves near-fatal for him and by the time of Logan, the whole healing factor has dampened considerably (Logan is in near-constant pain and scars on his body are clearly visible).
• Groin Attack: In The Last Stand, he dukes it out with a mutant who has much faster and more powerful Healing Factor than him. He neutralizes him by kicking him in the balls.
  Logan: Grow those back.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Downplayed, but still present.
• Healing Factor: By the climax of X-Men: The Last Stand, his flesh is being torn from his body at an alarming rate only to regenerate just as quickly. (This was explained in the novelization as being accelerated and enhanced even further than normal by the energy Jean was putting out.) He also survives a nuclear bomb in the opening of The Wolverine and his body is left a charred and scalded mess from the affair. However, it seems like the film Wolverine's healing factor is not as absurd as that of the comic book Wolverine, considering that decapitation is treated as a viable option in his solo films. But then again what could decapitate his Adamantium skeleton in the movie franchise? X-Men: Days of Future Past also presents drowning as an effective method, though he was fished out before it could take, with possibly up to 24 hours having passed.
• The Heart: In X-Men: Days of Future Past. Ironically, it's his major role in the film, with very few fight scenes. He's more there to galvanize the young Professor into action.
• Heavier than It Looks: It doesn't show from the surface, but the metal bonded to his skeleton weighs enough to strain a motorcycle's suspension in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, startling the owner.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: He is the best example as besides the X-Men body suit, he often wears a leather jacket.
• The Hero: Though Charles does seem to fill the role at times as well, Logan gets the most screen time (including 3 dedicated spin-off films), character development, and usually is the one to save the day, making him this to the film series overall.
• Heroic Bastard: He's the product of an affair between his mother and the family groundskeeper.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In X-Men, he almost dies giving his own life to save Rogue. In Logan, he dies after going on a rescue mission to save Laura and her friends from being executed by the Reavers.
• Hero of Another Story: He counts as an example in Deadpool & Wolverine from the perspective of MCU fans, as he originates from a different franchise and is a superhero with his own unique history that has no ties to anything previously seen int the MCU.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With his half-brother Victor Creed for his childhood and most of his adult life, up until he left Team X.
• Hot Blooded Sideburns: Has some rather prominent muttonchops to go along with his rash personality. The Perma-Stubble brings it even further.
• Hot Teacher: The ultimate Chick Magnet in the franchise joins the academy's staff in X-Men: The Last Stand. Revealed to be a history teacher in the new timeline created in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Even he isn't immune, spending the first few hours after he got his adamantium claws in X-Men Origins: Wolverine accidentally cutting things up.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: He has a moment in The Wolverine. Shortly after sleeping with Mariko, Logan becomes enraged once he learns that her fiancé Noburo is cheating on her with prostitutes. Logan had earlier learned that Mariko had been forced into accepting an Arranged Marriage with Noburo, who is privy to a conspiracy to kill her for money. His adultery, in Logan's eyes, is the tipping point of his betrayal.
• Hypocritical Humor: In the original X-Men film, the X-Men are wary of any of their allies who show up from another room/location/etc., being that there is a near-flawless shapeshifter (Mystique) amongst them. When told to prove that he's himself and not Mystique in disguise, he deadpans to Cyclops: "You're a dick." Scott deadpans in return "Okay." It WAS a good tactic to prove his identity (and funny as well), but between the two of them, Logan had definitely been more of "a dick." He has a short temper and is extremely antisocial in the film, and is probably the reason that the feud between Cyclops and himself started to begin with.
• I Did What I Had to Do: In The Wolverine, during a dream sequence, Wolverine tells Jean Grey that he had no choice but to kill her because of all the death and destruction she was causing.
• Immortality Hurts: It sure doesn't look like a pleasant experience to survive a nuclear bomb in The Wolverine.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A textbook example and an important part of Wolverine's character. Wolverine can be rude, crass and unapproachable at times, but at the end of the day he is a good person. This is especially highlighted and contrasted in Origins next to Victor Creed, who is pretty much his foil, thus a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk.
• Knight in Sour Armor: The experiences he's endured, combined with his longevity, have turned him into a cold and jaded person. However, he still rises to do the right thing in times of crisis because he has the means to, even if society doesn't like his kind and he returns the sentiment.
• The Lancer: A surly, cynical foil to Cyclops in the first two movies, and Storm in the third.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's not only strong and tough, he is fast. Before you know it, he's already stabbed or sliced you with his claws.
• Logical Weakness:
  • Pretty much every fight he has with Magneto ends about as well as you'd think a guy with a metal skeleton going up against a Master of Magnetism would.
  • His Healing Factor doesn't give him oxygen, he can drown and comes very close to it in Days of Future Past.

M-R

• Manly Tears: He cries in grief in the first film when he thinks Rogue has been killed by Magneto's mutant machine.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Due to the longevity his powers provide him, Wolverine faces this conundrum. Well, he would, if his love interests would live long enough to see old age. The only one who survives parts with him on amicable terms.
• Meaningful Name: He was born as James Howlett; his surname is a nod to his animalistic nature.
• Mr. Fanservice: He's the most sexualized male character in the franchise; he's briefly naked in a few movies and has numerous Shirtless Scenes. He lampshades it himself in the first movie. To count:
  • He is introduced shirtless in X-Men and is shown shirtless again when Jean examines him.
  • X-Men: The Last Stand has him fighting in a muscle shirt.
  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine has a couple of shirtless scenes, then a sequence where he emerges naked and wet from a tank, and a few more scenes in that state with only Scenery Censor keeping the movie PG-13.
  • The Wolverine: He reluctantly takes a bath as he's vigorously scrubbed by two female attendants, so much of his skin is on display. In fact, Hugh Jackman is the only reason Tao Okamoto initially agreed to play Mariko in The Wolverine, and Fan Bingbing can't stop gushing about him.
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past: He appears entirely naked when first waking up in the past.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: His every on-screen appearance features him running around shirtless.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: There are shades of this in X-Men: The Last Stand. He becomes angry at Xavier after learning about the psychic blocks in Jean's mind, yet despite his disgust, he still reassures her that the Professor can help and fix her mental instability. Instead of going on his own, Logan accompanies Charles to Jean's childhood home, and he's devastated when Xavier is murdered. It's on a subconscious level, but Wolverine was beginning to develop Undying Loyalty towards Professor X.
• Mysterious Past: Even to him.
• Naked on Arrival: In X-Men: Days of Future Past, he wakes up in the past naked... because his past self just spent the night in bed with the woman he's supposed to be guarding.
• Nature Hero: The Anti-Hero kind in The Wolverine. Specifically, he beat the shit out of the hunter who killed his bear friend/companion.
• Nice Guy: X-Men Origins depicts him as a much kinder and more laid-back man. He personally objected to his half-brother's senseless killings towards innocent lives, treats his previous girlfriend, Kayla, well even after she's revealed to be working for Stryker, and he still has the heart to forgive her by rescuing her sister, Emma, and every one of the mutants over himself. But after he's shot in the head by Stryker with adamantium bullets, resulting in him losing his memory, he becomes cynical and colder, yet still with a hint of kindness in the present timeline.
• The Nose Knows: He can track anybody from their scent easily. A badass moment in the first film had him recognizing a disguised Mystique as Storm only by sniffing her scent.
• Old Money: Judging by the refined manners of John Howlett and the grandeur of the mansion in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, James Howlett was born into wealth. However, he learns when he was around 13 years old that his mother Elizabeth had an affair with Thomas Logan, his family's groundskeeper, and is their illegitimate child. After the death of both his stepfather and biological father, James runs away from home, and he has been scratching a living ever since.
• Older Than They Look: All because of his Super Healing Factor. He was born in 1832, but as of X-Men: Days of Future Past, he still physically appears to be a buff as hell late thirties/early forties. His powers constantly rejuvenate his cellular integrity rendering him seemingly ageless. He's not entirely immortal however; it's believed that he can age, just at an incredibly slow rate. This means that by Days of Future Past he is 191 years old, despite looking to be in his early 40s.
• One-Man Army: While not to the level of his comic counterpart, he very much full-fills this trope
  • Best illustrated in X-Men: Apocalypse, wherein he singlehandedly slaughters every single soldier in the well-staffed Alkali Lake facility without a single one of them even managing to slow him down.
  • X-Men: The Last Stand had fight sequences of him tearing through several Brotherhood mutants.
  • In X-Men Origins: Wolverine he is shown annhilating several soldiers during the wars, the Weapon X soldiers twice after the adamantium infusion, one immediately after during his escape and then another later even when they come with a gunship and machine gun mounted Humvees.
  • The Wolverine has him tearing through large groups of Yakuza's and ninjas.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name, James Howlett, is very rarely used, appearing only in Origins and Logan. In the rest of the films he goes by Logan (his real father's last name).
• Papa Wolf:
  • Towards Rogue and the children at the school.
  • Literally towards Laura by the end of Logan, as she is his biological daughter.
• Parental Substitute:
  • To Rogue in the first X-Men.
  • Laura is technically Logan's daughter through genetic engineering. At first he tries to distance himself from her, but accepts her as his daughter as he dies, emphasizing his patronage and concern for her and her future.
• Past Experience Nightmare: A recurring element to his character are the nightmares he constantly has over the violence and losses in his life. They usually consist of the wars he's fought in, the people who have hurt him, and the people he has hurt, bad or good.
• Patricide: He accidentally killed his biological father after the latter killed the man that James had believed to be his real father.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Most of the people that Logan has killed were scumbags who had it coming one way or the other, including Agent Zero, Mariko's father and grandfather, and Zander Rice.
• Prefers Rocks to Pillows: A variant of this trope appears in one of the original trilogy novelizations. Logan, who is used to rugged living, prefers his showers much rougher than most people. When he takes a shower in one scene, he first turns the water as hot as it will go, then as cold as it will go. He also thinks to himself that the spray is not strong enough for his liking — he prefers a hammer-like spray.
• Really 700 Years Old: He was born in 1832, making him over a century old in most of his film appearances. However, his healing factor means that, for most of his adult life, he looked to only be in his mid-30s.
• Refusal of the Call: When Charles and Erik come asking for help in X-Men: First Class, he declines. Rudely.
  Logan: Go fuck yourself.
• Running Gag:
  • Thanks to his recurring nightmares of his Dark and Troubled Past, it's a bad idea to share a bed with him or to be near him when he's unconscious. Rogue, Silverfox, a veterinarian (student), and, very nearly, Mariko, learn this lesson the hard way. Surprisingly enough Mariko seems completely unperturbed by almost being impaled and CONTINUES SLEEPING WITH HIM!
    • Later, Shadowcat learns it the hard way. Not for sleeping with him, just for being too close during one of his episodes.
  • His discomfort when it comes to flying plays out across the various films.
  • Likely unintentional, but whenever he tries to confront Magneto, he ends up being thrown through the air. Ends up being quite intentional in X-Men: The Last Stand when a fastball special is deliberately used to distract Magneto long enough for Beast to sneak behind him and inject him with the Mutant Cure.

S-W

• Screaming Warrior: Usually lets out a battle cry when taking down foes. This becomes a major turning point in Logan when, after he takes a serum that boosted his healing back to his prime, Logan lets out an awe inspiring howl. Cue Oh, Crap! from the Reavers and the smiles from the other mutants Logan had been helping. Simplified by this line.
  Reaver: Oh shit, it's the Wolverine!
• Seen It All: When Deadpool is cleaning up the timeline, he just stands there nonchalantly as Deadpool headshots, then repeatedly double taps Weapon XI.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: In X-Men: Days of Future Past, he's the Manly Man with 1973 Charles in the Overly Sensitive Guy role. Logan has to act as the "glue" which barely holds the emotionally fragile Xavier together in order to complete their mission. Their opposite natures are most directly contrasted in the Pentagon kitchen scene, where Charles attempts to persuade the guards that he and his partner have a valid reason to be there, while Wolverine just knocks them out with a frying pan.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: It's demonstrated in X-Men. Surprising a sleeping PTSD vet is a bad idea, especially when he's got adamantium-coated bone claws.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Is often seen wearing a tank top.
• Small Role, Big Impact: His brief appearance in X-Men: Apocalypse allows the main heroes to reunite and escape the Weapon X facility.
• Sole Survivor: In a way. Given how Days of Future Past ends with the creation of a new timeline, Logan is the sole survivor of Earth-10005.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: By far the most prominent character in the franchise, being the main character in almost every film and having 3 solo films dedicated to himself.
• Super-Strength: Strong enough to toss around fully grown men as if they are pillows. In Logan, he continues to utilize the superhuman strength he displayed in his previous solo film The Wolverine; lifting grown men above his head and tossing them them quite far, and snaps a rifle in half with his bare hands. Will Munson even lampshades it.
• Tranquil Fury: His anger at the hunters who shot a bear with a poisoned arrow is surprisingly colder than his usual fits of temper.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: At 6'2", his snarkiness is as tall, if not taller, than his height.
• The Protagonist: Unofficially. Though the X-men film series doesn't have an official protagonist, Logan is the closest thing, with the most screen time, most movie appearances, and even had a trilogy of solo movies dedicated specifically to his character. Particularly impressive is, he is the only character to be played by the same actor and appear in every X-Men movie prior to Hugh Jackman retiring from the role with Logan, including cameos in First Class and Apocalypse.
• That Man Is Dead: In The Wolverine, when Yukio tells him it's an honour to meet the Wolverine, he mutters, "That's not who I am anymore."
• Time-Shifted Actor: A different actor plays James Howlett as a kid in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
• Token Adult: Unusually for a main protagonist, he is this in Logan to the survivors of the X-23 project.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: His mutant power first manifests itself in X-Men Origins: Wolverine when he witnesses his father being shot and stabs his father's killer to death.
• Unbreakable Bones: His adamantium skeleton is pretty much immune to damage.
• Unstoppable Rage: He's pretty angry when he fights, but he really goes into one of these as he's escaping the Weapon X Facility.
• Undying Loyalty: He has developed this for Xavier during the Time Skip after the post-credits scene of The Wolverine. Although both Magneto and Professor X are co-leaders of the remaining X-Men in 2023, Logan only defers to Charles' authority. When Erik tells him that, "You'll need me as well [in the past]," Wolverine is wholly against the idea, but he reluctantly agrees after Xavier nods in approval.
• Undying Warrior: As with his comic counterpart, Wolverine is practically immortal thanks to his regenerative powers, and the introductory sequence of X-Men Origins: Wolverine demonstrates that he and Sabertooth have enjoyed a very long career in the military: among other things, they both participated in the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War before getting embroiled in the modern conflicts between mutants and humans.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Logan, for what he has experienced, cannot die. It leads to the unfortunate circumstance of seeing those around him get killed or pass away of old age. However, when he is offered the chance to grow old and die like everyone else in The Wolverine, he refuses. He explains that living as long as he does is a curse, not a gift, since he has to watch everyone he loves grow old and die. It is clear he doesn't enjoy being immortal and sees it as a punishment he wouldn't wish even on his worst enemy.
• Wolverine Claws: Obviously. He's born with three bone claws that extend from both of his hands, and later in life gets them covered in an unbreakable metal known as adamantium.
• Wolverine Publicity: Wolverine, as portrayed by actor Hugh Jackman, is one of only two characters (the other being Professor X, who has been played by both Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy at different points in his life) to be in all the X-Men live action movies minus Deadpool (which only mentions both characters, and has the title character wearing a Hugh Jackman mask—this Deadpool advert even pokes fun at Wolverine's and Professor X's Spotlight-Stealing Squad status). Jackman has portrayed Wolverine in nine films, more than any other actor in a superhero role until Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Samuel L. Jackson surpass him with their roles in Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• Would Hit a Girl:
  • X-Men: Considering that Mystique is trying to kill him, he fights her as viciously as he would any man.
  • X2: X-Men United: The brutal confrontation between himself and Lady Deathstrike is one of the most violent duels in the franchise. To be fair, she was faster and got more hits in.
  • X-Men: The Last Stand: He has no choice but to slay the Phoenix in order to end her catastrophic rampage.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Wolverine's response after he climbs up a nuclear reactor chimney and Weapon XI proceeds to teleport right up there behind him.
• You Killed My Father: He kills Thomas Logan after he killed John Howlett, only to find out that Thomas Logan was actually his biological father all along.

Variants

New Timeline Logan

James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine

Species: Human mutant

Citizenship: British, Canadian

Affiliation(s): X-Men

Portrayed By: Hugh Jackman

Voiced By: Humberto Solórzano (Latin-American Spanish); Gabriel Jiménez (European Spanish); Joël Zaffarano (French); Isaac Bardavid (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appearances: X-Men: Days of Future Past | X-Men: Apocalypse

Logan's past self from 1973, whose body he takes over to prevent the dystopian future where the sentinels exist.

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• Alternate Self: His life was exactly the same as his main timeline counterpart until 1973 where his future self took over his body.
• Death of Personality: It's implied that he was "killed" when the main timeline Logan returned to a now altered 2023, taking over his body and expressing confusion over the changes to the timeline.
• Demoted to Extra: Unlike his main timeline counterpart, who plays a major role in the films, this Logan only makes small appearances in two films.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite the very different circumstances, Logan still ends up being experimented on, gaining his adamantium skeleton and eventually joining the X-Men.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Much like the main timeline Logan, he went through the Weapon-X program, but unlike the main timeline Logan, he gets his memory erased and ends up as a savage animal with no memories of his humanity. Though Jean manages to restore one of his memories.
• Living Weapon: He very much becomes the Weapon-X that Stryker envisioned him as, which the main timeline Logan had avoided.
• Mental Time Travel: Thanks to Kitty's powers, future Logan pulls this on him and later ends up permanently taking over his body when he wakes up in the new future.

Old Man Logan

James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine

"I don't know what Charles put into your head, but I'm not whatever it is you think I am, okay?!"

Species: Human mutant

Citizenship: British, Canadian

Affiliation(s): X-Men (formerly)

Portrayed By: Hugh Jackman

Voiced By: Humberto Solórzano (Latin-American Spanish); Gabriel Jiménez (European Spanish); Jérémie Covillault (French); Isaac Bardavid (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appearances: Logan

A variant of Logan from Earth-17315, where following an incident at the Westchester Mansion that killed several mutants, the X-Men disbanded and Logan retired as a superhero. He ended up becoming the caretaker of Charles Xavier, who now suffered from dementia, while trying to stay out of the spotlight, but is forced into action when he realizes that a girl he's been coerced into escorting has powers similar to his own.

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• Action Dad: Although he spends most of the movie pushing Laura away, he becomes this in time for the final battle, rushing to her aid as Rice and Pierce are closing in.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Compared to his main universe counterpart. Despite both living in a Bad Future, this Logan is far more cynical and uncaring towards others, while his main timeline self still cared about trying to make things better.
• The Alcoholic: While never a teetotaler to begin with, Logan has turned to booze to manage the constant pain he suffers from as his Healing Factor deteriorates.
• Alternate Self: To the version from the main continuity. Characterization-wise, he's essentially the same as the main universe version in a Broad Strokes sense, albeit one rocked by a traumatic, offscreen incident that made him much rougher around the edges.
• Badass and Child Duo: He reluctantly takes in the eleven-year old Laura, who claims to be his genetic daughter, and goes on a road trip to help her escape the evil corporation that's hunting her down. The interesting thing with this duo is that while Logan is still a killing machine, Laura's youth and agility actually make her just as "badass" as her father.
• Badass Driver: He now works as a rideshare limousine driver and uses Car Fu during the film's first major battle.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: He grabs a handgun from a Reaver either he or Laura killed. And uses it to kill Rice and break Pierce's cybernetic hand.
• Beard of Sorrow: He sports a thick, unkempt beard. You can tell he doesn't care much about his personal appearance anymore, and given everything that's happened to him at that point, including the near-extinction of mutantkind, who could blame him? The tone of the film gets slightly lighter when the X-23 kids trim his beard back to look more like his traditional sideburns.
• Beauty Inversion: This Logan looks far older than he ever has in any other film. His healing factor typically erases any trace of injury, but now he has several notable wrinkles and marks on his face, and any glimpse of the rest of his body looks as if his skin is now mostly scar tissue. He is rather famous as a Walking Shirtless Scene, so this is the first time that such a scene is not used for fanservice.
• Broad Strokes: This variant is this to the Logan of the main films: he has experienced all the same major events such as Weapon X, being a cage fighter before meeting the X-Men and the battle at the Statue of Liberty in the first film, the events of The Wolverine, while deleted scenes imply that he killed Jean Grey like in The Last Stand and that Sabretooth was his half-brother like in Origins. However, it's not clear if this Logan experienced the events of Days of Future Past, with the it being unknown whether the Logan timeline diverging from the primary timeline after Weapon X, if it occurred after the Do FP epilogue, or if it's an alternate outcome to the timeline changes in Do FP.
• Brought Down to Badass: His Healing Factor is severely compromised. In fact in many scenes he's outright hobbled because he's no longer healing as well as he used to. He's often walking with a pronounced limp, his body is stiff and seems at times arthritic, he's riddled with scars and open wounds (which, based on what Caliban said, are frequently infected), and at the beginning of the film one of his claws jams and fails to fully extend during a fight. He's still the Wolverine, but time has not been kind.
• Character Death: His power doesn't work well enough anymore to heal the fatal wounds he gets at the end.
• Cool Old Guy: This Logan is pushing 200 when we see him.
• Composite Character: He takes on elements of Sarah Kinney from X-23: Innocence Lost: Since Laura's birth mother remains anonymous in the film, he's the one with whom she develops a familial bond, and who dies as a result of Zander Rice's actions — in this case mortally wounded by his own clone, X-24. He then dies in Laura's arms, while telling her she can be better than what her creators wanted her to be.
• Death by Adaptation: Granted, the classic Wolverine was dead at the time because of the events of Death of Wolverine and wouldn't come back until after Logan's release, but he arugably counts as type 2 as one of Logan's main influences was Old Man Logan—which saw its Logan survive the original story and would die years later in Dead Man Logan.
• Death Seeker: More or less by the time Logan takes place. The X-Men are a thing of the past since seven of them were accidentally killed by Xavier years earlier in a seizure-induced mental attack with others likely being hunted down later, mutants have almost died off, and Logan himself (who is in a constant state of physical pain due to his decaying healing factor) is left to a rather aimless existence with nothing left to do but look after Xavier and drive a limo part-time. Later on in the movie he admits that he's been thinking about using his adamantium bullet to end it all. In the end he gets a much more heroic death.
• Decomposite Character: Despite the movie adapting elements of Old Man Logan, it isn't Wolverine who's the unknowing killer of the X-Men, but rather Professor Xavier.
• Defrosting Ice King: Towards Laura. Her initially treats Laura as nothing more than the cargo he needs to get from one place to another. From the point where he learns that Laura is his clone, and effectively, his daughter, he begins to act more like a strict parent when around her, though slowly begins to treat her with more and more affection. After Charles, Caliban and the Munsons are killed, Logan tries to distance himself from Laura in an effort to protect her, and ultimately dies holding her hand, accepting her as his daughter before succumbing to his wounds.
• Dented Iron: By the time that Logan takes place, his healing factor is no longer as powerful as before, making his aging more visible and his body being heavily scarred and riddled with half-healed wounds, some of which are infected. It's weakened to the point that the wounds he receives at the climax of the movie are fatal.
• The Driver: He takes a limousine driver job so that he can take care of the infirm Xavier. The car model (Chrysler E8) was specifically made for the film.
• Dying Declaration of Love: His final words to Laura are to tell her not to be what Transigen made her, and finally accepting her as his daughter as he muses on what Xavier told him earlier in the film about what life and having family feels like.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Compared to his cushy teaching job at the school, Logan is now barely scraping by as a limo driver near the border in order to take care of Charles.
• Fan Disservice: This Logan's nowhere near as healthy or attractive as his other variants due to his failing Healing Factor. His many Shirtless Scenes showing off several ugly scars, and as the movie drags on, many gaping and still-bleeding wounds.
• Feeling Their Age: The screenplay page of Logan describes Wolverine like this: "As for our hero, well, he's older now and it's clear his abilities aren't what they once were. He's fading on the inside and his diminished healing factor keeps him in a constant state of chronic pain."
• Go Out with a Smile: He gives Laura a smile before finally perishing.
• Glasses of Aging: Compared to his main universe self, this Logan wears reading glasses to illustrate just how much he's aged.
• Grumpy Old Man: Losing many of his friends, working a low-paying job where he gets little-to-no respect, and slowly dying from adamantium poisoning as a result of his healing factor deteriorating has made Logan more cynical than he's ever been before.
• Handicapped Badass: Downplayed in Logan. He's still walking and can make mince-meat of a man, but he's long past his prime. He has numerous scars, walks with a noticeable limp, sometimes even has trouble fully extending his claws, and puts on reading glasses. Compared to the fighter he was before, he's much weaker.
• Happy Ending Override: Only for this iteration of the character. While the main timeline counterpart is, for all intents and purposes, given a happy ending, this Wolverine was left in an emotionally-broken state after the Westchester Incident, which happened after the epilogue of Days of Future Past. Namely, he loses all his loved ones when Xavier accidentally kills the X-Men in a psychic attack, before Xavier is killed by Logan's evil clone and then finally being killed himself. The only good outcome from that situation is that Laura and the other mutant children are free to live their lives.
• Heal It with Booze: As revealed by the first screenplay page of Logan, Wolverine is in a "constant state of chronic pain" and uses "booze as a painkiller."
• The Hero Dies: He dies in the end from the wounds he received fighting X-24.
• Hypocritical Humor: He reprimands Laura for shoplifting in a convenience store and later stealing a car, only to steal a charger in said convenience store.
• Important Haircut: Late in Logan, when he collapses at Eden, the X-23 children take the opportunity to shave his unkempt hair into the classic Wolverine sideburns. Logan himself is not amused.
• Immortality Hurts: Taken to eleven with this variant, who not only is covered in scars and half-healed wounds, but his wounds frequently get infected, he frequently walks with a pronounced limp, and his claws frequently get stuck halfway in and require him to pull them out the rest of the way, which visibly causes him extreme pain.
• Incurable Cough of Death: He coughs in fits throughout Logan, which is a symptom of him Secretly Dying. And in the end, he does die, but from fatal wounds rather than sickness.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In Logan, he is impaled on a tree branch by X-24.
• Last of His Kind: Downplayed (though not very much), then played with. By the time of Logan, he's convinced that there are no other mutants left aside from himself, Xavier, and Caliban. He's proven wrong by the existence of the X-23 project, whom are a bunch of kids, including Laura, with mutant powers. However, he was still (presumably) the last naturally born mutant, as well as the final surviving member of the X-Men.
• Made of Iron: Despite his healing factor being much weaker than ever, he can still take a lot of punishment and keep going.
• Miles to Go Before I Sleep: By the time of the events of Logan, he is slowly dying and has clearly ventured into Death Seeker territory, carrying with him an adamantium bullet for the day when he can finally end it all, but he must first take care of Charles and ensure that he doesn't harm anybody as his mind deteriorates.
• Really 700 Years Old: Downplayed compared to most examples, but since he's a Broad Strokes Alternate Self to the main Logan of the X-Men films he presumably has the same origin as that version. This means that by the time of the film, which is set in 2029, he's now 197 years old.
• Secretly Dying: Logan is slowly being poisoned to death by his own adamantium skeleton, as a result of his healing factor slowing down with age. He makes it very clear that his days are numbered.
• Undying Loyalty: Logan's loyalty to Xavier becomes outright protective by the time of the movie, as he's taking care of a mentally-ill, elderly Xavier.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Logan and Xavier, bordering on a bromance version of Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other. Despite their grumpy demeanor around each other and their constant arguing, Logan treats the aged (and increasingly demented) professor more as a father than a mentor, to the point of having built his life around being his caretaker and planning on fully retiring with him on a boat. This even goes so far that, when Laura gets abducted in his presence, he is more occupied with looking for Xavier without any delay and doesn't even lift a finger to help her until it's taken care of. It's quite clear that Professor X is basically the only family he has left.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: The years have been unkind to Logan and he's at a point where he feels that death would be a release. He finally gets his release and passes away at the end.
• You Killed My Father: When X-24 stabs Charles and Logan watches him die in the bed of his truck, he is FUCKING PISSED, and he gives the most hits and rage in his fight against X-24 than in their second bout, although not enough to win that fight, he did manage to be brutal and driven enough to surprise, rip into, and drive X-24 back at first.

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"Don't be what they made you."