Director «Logan»: universes for many films — this «death of storytelling»

The director of «Logan», James Mangold, calls multi-film universes the enemy of storytelling and the death of storytelling. According to him, in them, viewers are not concerned with the story, but with how different films are connected and all sorts of Easter eggs.

The director, who has created such films from such famous franchises as he Wolverine, Logan, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, shared his position on cinematic universes during a conversation with Rolling Stone about the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic «A Complete Unknown». He was asked why Joaquin Phoenix didn’t reprise his highly acclaimed role as Johnny Cash from the 2005 film «Walk the Line» in this new film.

«I don’t make multiverses», — Mangold replied.

«It’s strange that I worked in the entertainment world, because I don’t like building a universe of multiple movies. I think it’s the enemy of storytelling. It’s the death of storytelling. People are more interested in how the pieces «Lego» fit together than how the story unfolds. I always ask questions: «What is unique about this movie and these characters?» Not to make you think of some other movie, an Easter egg or something else, which is an intellectual rather than an emotional act. You want the movie to work on an emotional level».

Despite the fact that Mangold’s filmography includes many parts of franchises, he prefers to approach these films as separate projects. Last year, he said Varietysaid he was not interested in continuing to work on Indiana Jones after directing and writing the script for the fifth installment.

«I refuse. I just can’t do it. The amount of lore, easter eggs, and fan service at some point starts to become the opposite of any of these things. It’s not storytelling anymore. It’s large-scale advertising», — says the director.

Mangold’s next film, «A Complete Unknown», is expected to be released in theaters in December and will star Timothée Chalamet. The director is also involved in the production of «Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi» (working title).