The R-rated movie served as a swan song for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, the character he'd played through nine films over 17 years, as well as for Patrick Stewart's Prof. X. It ended up being the most successful of the Wolverine solo films, with $616.7 million worldwide at the box office and plenty of critical acclaim.

Mangold was awoken by a pet at 5 a.m., so he decided to stay up to watch the nominations, and was shocked when his name was called.

"I didn’t really imagine we were going to get a nomination, given several things," Mangold told The Hollywood Reporter by phone Tuesday. "One was that we premiered a year ago. And then you add to that the mix that we are a comic book adaptation, and it dawns on you what a thrill it is to get nominated and to be among the incredible nominees."

Mangold has directed on Oscar films before, such as the 2005 Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, but this is the first time he has personally been nominated.

"I feel so happy. In a way, it's easier to process when it's your compatriots" he said. "I'm still a little dazed how to process it now. And as the day is going on and my coffee is waking me up, it's kind of sinking in."

After a particularly strong 2017 for superhero films, fans wondered if Logan or Wonder Woman would break through in awards season. In the end, Wonder Woman was shut out of the Oscars; however, non-superhero but still geeky films fared well. Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water led the pack with 13 nominations, including for best picture, best original screenplay (Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor) and best director and acting nominations for Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer. Writer-director Jordan Peele's horror hit Get Out earned nominations for best picture, director, original screenplay and best actor (Daniel Kaluuya).

And though it wasn't for a superhero movie, The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan finally landed a best director nomination with Dunkirk. He's previously been nominated for screenwriting (Memento and Inception) and for producing a best picture nominee (Inception), but the directing nomination had eluded him, much to the frustration of the In Nolan We Trust faithful.

Here's the full list of nominees.

Jan. 23, 11:15 a.m. Updated with comments from Mangold.