Logan: Hugh Jackman confirms which X-Men timeline Wolverine 3 exists in

The film will be the actor's final outing as the mutant

Considering there have been eight X-Men films, it's not difficult to imagine that keeping in line with continuity in future films is quite a tough task for any director.

Logan filmmaker James Mangold and lead actor Hugh Jackman had a convenient way of overcoming such an issue - by ignoring all the timelines presented in past films.

Discussing the benefits of such an approach, Jackman continued: "[Following the timelines] becomes a chess game that you try to serve, which actually doesn't help to tell a story and it's sort of been a bit all over the place. I'm not critical of it - X-Men was the first movie really in comic book, no one thought there'd be another and there were different directors different off-shoots."

This isn't say characters from the X-Men universe won't be appearing in the film; as glimpsed in the trailer, an ailing version of Patrick Stewart's Professor X will show up, hiding on the Mexican border along with Wolverine who the film will see help a young mutant (Dafne Keen) pursued by ‘dark forces.'

"It's a stand alone movie in many ways," Jackman continued. "It's not really beholden to time lines and story lines in the other movies. Obviously Patrick Stewart was in there so we have some crossover but it feels very different and very fresh."

We were lucky to see a number of scenes from Jackman's final Wolverine outing at a FOX showcase event last week - you can read our thoughts on them here.

Early word surrounding Logan has been positive, and Jackman's grateful that the studio permitted them to make the film they wanted to make.

Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds has seen the film and believes it's so good it could win Oscars.

Logan will be released on 1 March.