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In the trailer for the upcoming movie Logan (2016),

we can see that Wolverine's back is covered in scars:

A screen capture from the aforementioned trailer from the upcoming movie "Logan" (2016), showing the titular character, Logan (also known as Wolverine), standing at a dimly lit mirror, his back visibly and heavily scarred.

However, in the rest of Fox's X-Men/Wolverine movies, he always heals without leaving scars.

Why or what would cause him to have scars that his healing can't fix?

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Himarm
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    Although outside the XCU, in Old Man Logan, he has scars. (I think.) – miltonaut Oct 21 '16 at 13:32
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    do we know from the trailer that he still heals? – KutuluMike Oct 21 '16 at 13:36
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    We don't see any instances of real-time healing in the trailer, but the director has mentioned that it still works - just not as well. – phantom42 Oct 21 '16 at 13:38
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    Wait for the movie to actually come out, then watch it...? – Lightness Races in Orbit Oct 21 '16 at 18:04
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit or already have read an interview with the answer? – Himarm Oct 21 '16 at 18:05
  • If a 200 year old mutant who looks like he's 50 years old, with metal claws, and advanced healing in a comic book and related movies is now off topic, I'm done with this site. – phantom42 Oct 22 '16 at 13:47
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit wow, I guess no one ever thought of that before. Oh, no, wait, there's extensive meta discussions about just that: you can ask questions about movies you haven't seen; you can ask questions about trailers; you can ask about published information for movies that aren't out yet; and the answer might already exist in other media (since this is based on a comic book) – KutuluMike Oct 22 '16 at 15:02
  • @phantom42: Who said it's off-topic? And why are you threatening to be "done with this site"? – Lightness Races in Orbit Oct 22 '16 at 23:18
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit the question has 2 close votes for offtopic – Himarm Oct 22 '16 at 23:28

2 Answers2

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Director James Mangold answered this in an interview with Empire Online.

In this XCU version, Logan's healing factor abilities have altered over time. While they still heal him, they no longer heal him perfectly, leaving scars.

“One of the things we all thought about as we worked on this film is, well, we don’t want to rebuild everything. We want to have some questions. In order to make a different Logan, and a different tone of a Wolverine movie, we felt like we couldn’t hold on to every tradition established in all the movies religiously, or we’d be trapped by the decisions made before us. So we questioned whether Logan’s healing factor causes him to heal without even a scar. We imagined that it may have when he was younger, but with age, he’s getting older and ailing. Perhaps his healing factor no longer produces baby-soft skin. So we imagined he heals quickly, still, but it leaves a scar. The simple idea was that his body would start to get a little more ravaged with a kind of tattooing of past battles, lacerations that remain of previous conflicts.”

In the final cut of the movie, his healing factor not only just leaves scars, it also works MUCH slower. It is heavily implied that the adamantium inside him is poisoning him, resulting in a decreased healing factor.

phantom42
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    Sounds like they wanted to ignore the backstory they created for him in the original wolverine film (as it makes no sense that that suddenly happens when he is already WAY over what...100?) – Thomas Oct 21 '16 at 15:16
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    @Thomas Adamantium is supposedly highly toxic. His regeneration factor is constantly fighting that and also repairing all the other damage he does to himself and others do to him. It would make sense for it to deteriorate over time under those circumstances. – Tim B Oct 21 '16 at 15:35
  • @TimB that is still over 30 years that it took there to have any adverse effect on him? – Thomas Oct 21 '16 at 16:15
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    If he wanted to "make a different Logan", maybe not use the SAME ACTOR again? – Hannover Fist Oct 21 '16 at 17:10
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    @Hannover: Not that different. – Lightness Races in Orbit Oct 21 '16 at 18:05
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    @Thomas: You don't get any grey hairs until you're what age? – Lightness Races in Orbit Oct 21 '16 at 18:05
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    @Thomas given that various immune/health related issues don't manifest until adulthood and later (various forms of autoimmune dermatitis, for example, don't manifest until 30), it's entirely plausible for his healing factor to take decades to noticeably deteriorate from adamantium toxicity and just life in general. – Shauna Oct 21 '16 at 18:54
  • This happens in one of the animation series aswell. When he is hunted for longer time, sleep deprived and constantly shot at, his healing factor is working slower. And as others mentioned, while he is old, he was experimented with and adamantium introduced into his body. Additionally his earlier life was probably a lot less dangerous and damaging. In the modern era he gets cut up and shot at a lot of times. And even his healing isn't perfect. Eg. when he got shot in the head his memory vanished, suggesting that the state of the tissue is altered, even if just slightly. – HopefullyHelpful Oct 21 '16 at 21:11
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    @HopefullyHelpful wasn't the memory thing as it was an adamantium bullet and thus stayed at that damaged location? – Thomas Oct 22 '16 at 07:15
  • @Thomas I thought they explained that as not the bullet remaining in place, but rather the fact that regenerated brain tissue doesn't mean regenerated memories. – Paul Mar 05 '17 at 18:50
  • @Thomas It is implied old age also played a factor. So yes, it took Logan 30 years to start getting weaker because when he was younger his body could fight adamantium poisoning without much effort, but when he got older his healing factor couldn't keep up. This is similar to how regular humans' immune system works: it simply works better when you're younger. That's why he's worse when he is "way over 100". – Andres F. Mar 26 '17 at 17:09
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No, his healing factor is not working as before

As explained in the official screenplay:

Screen capture of the screenplay from the movie "Logan" (2016).

Now might be a good time to talk about “fights” described in the next 100 or so pages. Basically, if you’re on the make for a hyper choreographed, gravity defying, city-block destroying, CG fuckathon, this ain’t your movie.

In this flick, people will get hurt or killed when shit falls on them. They will get just as hurt or just as killed if they get hit with something big and heavy like, say, a car. Should anyone in our story have the misfortune to fall off a roof or out a window, they won’t bounce. They will die.

As for our hero with his so-called eternal life and healing. Well, he’s older now. If you keep reading, you’ll discover Logan’s about to get his ass kicked. But before we get to that, we should make it clear his abilities ain’t what they were. Yes, he’s a drunk, but he’s also fading on the inside. Adamantium implants leeching into his system, causing chronic pain and diminished healing, hence booze as painkiller.

So by all means, go ahead and worry about him. Now where were we? Oh, yeah--
- Mangold et al. (2016), "Logan", Final Shooting Draft Screenplay

He's older, and the Adamantium plating of his is slowly poisoning him[1].

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