It’s wild to think about this now, especially as people are predicting massive opening weekend numbers for “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Still, there was a time, shortly after the Disney acquisition of Fox, when people thought the “Deadpool” franchise was dead. Thoughts about how Disney would want it to be PG-13 or wouldn’t want to inherit the universe that was created? Basically, people thought there might not be another ‘Deadpool’ film. And one of those people was none other than Ryan Reynolds.
In a new interview with EW, while promoting the aforementioned “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Reynolds admitted that he wasn’t sure he’d get to don the superhero tights again after Fox was bought out by Disney. He didn’t see a way how his foul-mouthed, murderous hero would fit in with the PG-13’ Avengers.’
“I didn’t know if I’d ever be playing Deadpool again,” Reynolds said. “It’s not something I would’ve said necessarily publicly, but I didn’t know how a character like that would fit into that world [of the MCU].”
But when it was decided that Deadpool would make his MCU debut, the question became about how to integrate the character properly into this different universe. Reynolds was not short on ideas. One idea was “a Rashomon story that had these three different points of view.” Another idea was actually a micro-budget road trip comedy.
“Literally, it was a $5 or $6 million budget with no special effects,” explained Reynolds of one of his proposals. “It was just a talkie-talkie road trip with me and [Karan Soni’s character] Dopinder, and some of the things we collected and saw along the way. It wasn’t meant to be an event movie. If we’re on our way to Point C, it was meant to just get us to Point B. That was the weirdest one. I liked it. I thought it was kind of fun.”
Ultimately, Hugh Jackman said yes to Reynolds’ idea of a team-up movie, and the rest is history. All that’s left is for fans of the MCU to see how they finally get Deadpool to interact with the world of superheroes that already exists. Is he going to join the Avengers? Or will he forever be an oddball on the fringes of the universe? We’ll find out when “Deadpool & Wolverine” debuts in theaters on July 26.