**Spoilers ahead for “Deadpool 2,” in theaters now.”
“Deadpool 2” is a rare film where, if you learn the spoilers, your viewing of the film will probably not be that affected very much. Obviously, the big spoiler about ‘Pool’s main squeeze, Vanessa, being killed off happens before the opening credits. So, that only ruins the first 10 minutes or so.
And the main thing that everyone wants to talk about is the end-credits scene, which yes invalidates the movie and makes the preceding 2+ hours moot, BUT that doesn’t mean you didn’t have a blast watching the film. So, really, “Deadpool 2” is pretty much spoiler-proof. That being said, there are tons of revelations and we now have Ryan Reynolds talking to the Empire Podcast about every little spoiler about the superhero film.
READ MORE: ‘Deadpool 2’ Gives Maximum Effort But Fails To Break Records With $125 Million Opening
He starts by giving the backstory to the post-credits scene. For those that don’t know, the film’s extra tag at the end sees Deadpool go back in time and basically undo everything that happened, as mentioned above. However, that wasn’t initially in the script. In fact, it was a really late addition, and the completion of the scene wasn’t done until last minute. The original idea focused on everyone’s favorite new X-Force member Peter (Rob Delaney).
“The entire tag to the movie…was actually initially conceived as a scene with Peter. The whole thing was a scene with Peter, just because we loved Peter,” explains Reynolds. However, that’s when director David Leitch approached Reynolds and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick with this crazy time-travel idea.
“I was like ‘No, we can’t bring Vanessa back! That’s cheating!’ said Reynolds. “Rhett, Paul, and I thought, ‘Fine, if we’re going to go back to save Vanessa, then let’s bring back Peter, let’s kill Baraka-pool, and let’s execute Ryan Reynolds.’”
And that’s what happened. Except the hardest part was the killing “Baraka-pool.” For those that don’t get the mid-90s “Mortal Kombat” reference, the version of Deadpool that appeared in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” had blades that came out of his arms, like the character Baraka in “Mortal Kombat,” thus the name Baraka-pool.
But the issue came with finding the footage with Hugh Jackman. Reynolds needed the clip of Wolverine saying “Wade?” but that clip was damaged on the Fox lot. So, they found another transfer of the film and luckily were able to get it at the very last minute. The only other option would have been to ask Hugh Jackman to reprise his role in the absolute worst “X-Men” film for a 2-second cameo, but thankfully it was avoided. However, Reynolds says he lost sleep over the debacle.
When asked if killing Baraka-pool was Reynolds’ way of exorcising his previous “X-Men” demons, he said, “I feel like ‘Deadpool 1’ and ‘Deadpool 2’ are just a corrective answer to all of that anyways.”
The rest of the scene was a breeze. “We shot all the chunks of it in an afternoon, and that was that,” he concludes. Listen to the whole podcast to hear the star go over everything else you could possibly know about the film.
Now, the big question is, “What does the time-travel post-credits scene mean for the future of the franchise?” Paul Wernick explained (via Cinema Blend) the decision to do the scene and why it’s officially canon:
“It was one of those things where we all looked at it, and go, ‘Yeah, I mean on a purely tactical screenwriting basis it’s probably not the wisest thing to do, but it was just too funny and so much fun that I think the audience will forgive us for doing it, because time travel in general is kind of a funky thing. And so we just took our license with it and made it Deadpool.”
Now that you’ve completely had every nook and cranny of the film spoiled and analyzed, it’s the perfect time to go back to the theater to see “Deadpool 2” another time!