Logan will be the first great superhero movie of 2017

It seems that some big Hollywood studios are realizing the superhero genre has reached saturation and these movies need to reinvent themselves. Marvel did it with the trashy, self-aware, and brilliant Deadpool, as well as the campy, '80s-tinged space opera Guardians of the Galaxy. Consider even superheroes on TV, where Jessica Jones is just a drunken private eye and the upcoming Legion takes place in a psych ward. "Gritty" doesn't cut it anymore. "Make the bad guys anti-heroes" is lazy.

Now, it looks like 20th Century Fox has figured it out, too. The next Wolverine movie takes an entirely different approach to the X-Men character, as we saw in the first trailer for the franchise's latest installment, Logan. Wolverine is a grizzled, tortured old man, the last of the heroes whose powers are waning. A wheelchair-less Professor X, Logan, and a young girl wander a post-apocalyptic, middle American wasteland—it's like Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets X-Men. It's more Mad Max than Dark Knight.

This second trailer reveals further details about the plot, which involves the young girl with Wolverine powers (two claws, self-healing, super strength) kicking ass to protect old-ass Logan and Professor X. She has a real Eleven from Stranger Things vibe. It's promising. Very promising. And most importantly, Hugh Jackman had enough faith in the film to take a pay cut to ensure it got an R-rating. On March 3, Logan looks to be the first great superhero movie of 2017.

This story originally appeared on Esquire.com.

* Minor edits have been made by the Esquiremag.ph editors.