For a movie set in the X-Men universe, Logan has a shockingly low number of mutants in it, especially compared to the last movie in the franchise, X-Men: Apocalypse. Logan has a much smaller ensemble, with the focus on Wolverine, Professor X, and a mysterious young girl with mutant powers eerily similar to Wolverine's (fans, you know what I'm saying). And then there's Caliban, one of the few other mutants in Logan. Returning from his big screen debut in Apocalypse, Caliban has a significant supporting role in Logan. And at this point I can only assume that every non-comic book X-Men fan is asking themselves the same question: just who is Caliban? Logan's Albino mutant is more dangerous than he looks.
In Apocalypse, Caliban's first appearance in the X-Men franchise, Caliban was shown as a mysterious underground mutant, who helped mutants get new identities. Caliban isn't particularly threatening looking, though his skinny, white body and creepy grin was definitely striking. In that movie, Caliban made a living trading in information, and, while his own mutant power was never fully identified, he boasted about his ability to know everything about every mutant and surrounded himself by others with psychic abilities. In the comics, Caliban has the power to sense any mutants in his surroundings and can have bursts of extreme strength and emotional manipulation. (Think Professor X without the telepathy.)
Over the years, Caliban has fought alongside the X-Men and against them, and in Logan, he's mostly one of the good guys. However, we do know that historically Caliban has significant ties to Mister Sinister, a character who was hinted as perhaps being a villain in Logan at the end of Apocalypse. (In the Apocalypse post-credits scene, Mister Sinister, or a group representing him, is seen collecting a vial of Wolverine's blood.) Caliban did not work for Apocalypse in the last X-men film, though he did seem willing to help him track down other mutants to be his horsemen. That said, he's too much of a mystery to be truly good or truly evil. And then there's the fact that in Logan, Caliban is played by Stephen Merchant, while Tómas Lemarquis played him in Apocalypse. Could the two Calibans be different on-screen versions of the same character? After all, Apocalypse and Logan take place nearly 50 years apart, so without any concrete evidence tying the two together, they could just be entirely different characters.
Putting the Apocalypse Caliban aside, it's impossible to know whether or not Logan's Caliban is good or bad. When it comes to the X-Men franchise, one can never be too sure.
