Considering how incredibly successful Deadpool & Wolverine is and how much it has ingrained itself into popular culture, it’s hard to imagine a world without that film, but that was very nearly the case. In an interview with IndieWire, Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds revealed that his initial pitch for Deadpool 3 was very different and while it was still a Deadpool and Wolverine story, it was the timing that was the issue, thanks to the then-recent release of Logan. It was an issue that almost ended Deadpool’s journey.
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“Ironically, my first pitch to Kevin Feige five years before was a Deadpool and Wolverine movie, a Rashomon story,” Reynolds said. “So much of these movies are timing. He [Hugh Jackman] had just finished Logan, and it was a beautiful masterpiece of a movie and a screenplay. He didn’t feel like it was right. And I respected that.”
And who could blame him? Logan was the perfect way to tie up Wolverine’s story in Fox’s X-Men franchise. However, Jackman ended up changing his mind five years later, and it was his enthusiasm for the prospect of bringing the two iconic characters together on the big screen that breathed new life into the project. At that point, Reynolds and director Shawn Levy were struggling with how to bring the more grounded Deadpool into the glossier, high-stakes world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and were ready to jump on a Zoom call with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige to throw in the towel. But Jackman called and declared he was ready to return for a team-up movie, which instantly opened the floodgates for new story ideas.
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Because of that 11th-hour phone call, Reynolds and Levy’s scheduled meeting with Feige changed from “we give up” to “we’ve got a great idea.”
“And from that phone call onward, this pairing unlocked the story for us, and it instantly became not only a Midnight Run, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles-inspired two-hander road trip, but also a movie about legacy and about two characters haunted with regret, who need each other to find redemption,” Levy said. “And that really unlocked the writing process for us.”
When the initial idea of doing a Deadpool/Wolverine team-up flick failed to launch, Reynolds had a bunch of predictably zany ideas for the third installment in the Deadpool series and while all of these ideas could’ve at least made for entertaining viewing, it’s safe to assume that fans are happier that the Merc With The Mouth got to interact with Disney’s Marvel characters and not its beloved animated characters. It sounds like Reynolds is, too.
“There was, even before Shawn joined. I must have pitched Kevin a dozen, maybe 16, Deadpool movies, a Sundance Deadpool, which was like a road trip with Margo Martindale, shot on no money, no special effects needed, just character,” Reynolds said. “I pitched Deadpool Is Hunting, the hunter who shot Bambi’s mom finds him, and they fall in love, become, like, Butch and Sundance and of course, I was told we don’t touch Bambi at Disney, and rightly so.”
Deadpool & Wolverine is now streaming on Disney+.
