'Logan' director posts photo of aged Professor X

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Logan director James Mangold is giving fans a glimpse of the movie's aged Professor X.

The 52-year-old filmmaker tweeted a picture Thursday of an elderly Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) from the set of The Wolverine sequel.

"Taken w/ Leica S 007 Summicron 100mm, ISO 3200 1/250 f3.4 -- by JM," he captioned the photo.

Stewart debuted as Professor X in the 2000 movie X-Men and has since starred as the character in three other movies. James McAvoy plays a younger version of Xavier in X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse.

Sources told The Wrap this week that Professor X is "old and not well" in the new movie. The character's powers are reportedly "unstable" and he sometimes doesn't even recognize Logan (Hugh Jackman), aka Wolverine.

Jackman and Mangold revealed the film's official title and release date, March 3, 2017, on Wednesday. The director also tweeted a photo of a page from the movie's script that hints Logan may not survive.

"In this flick, people will get hurt or killed when [expletive] 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," notes on the page read.

"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," the notes continue. "So by all means, go ahead and worry about him."

The child's hand in the poster and the script's note suggest Jackman will pass the baton to a younger actor. The 47-year-old star had confirmed in 2015 that Wolverine 3 will mark his final appearance as the character.