Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on July 26th.
Deadpool & Wolverine represents a landmark project for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman team-up is the first 20th Century Fox-produced franchise to continue its story under the Marvel Studios banner, as the events of Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018) are considered canon ahead of the threequel. While Wade Wilson is already confirmed to keep his trademark R-Rated humor, the backdrop by which he delivers his dialogue remains to be seen. All films set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe have a particular style to them. The X-Men franchise under 20th Century Fox production evolved over the years, but it also retained its distinct vibe.
Deadpool & Wolverine to Blend MCU, X-Men Styles
The lone Marvel Studios theatrical project this year will have a merge of methodologies.
Speaking on The Official Marvel Podcast, Marvel President Kevin Feige detailed how he and Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds approached their collaboration on Deadpool & Wolverine.
“We had nothing to do with the first two extremely successful Deadpool movies. Marvel Studios had nothing to do with those,” Feige said. “So, in a way, we were playing on Ryan’s turf. We were playing on somebody else’s sandbox. The other way is that they were coming into our sandbox. We wanted to make it unique with the blending of those styles.
“It was really, really nice the way Shawn Levy, our director, and Ryan were able to come in and embrace the best of what Ryan had pioneered with Deadpool and what Hugh had pioneered on those early X-Men films and bringing them in a very irreverent way, which people are already starting to piece together based on the trailers and the presence of the Time Variance Authority into our sandbox.”
While the Deadpool franchise is new territory for Feige, the roof it was under is familiar. Feige got his start in Marvel when he worked on X-Men (2000) as an associate producer. When the second-half of that Deadpool & Wolverine title was made possible after Hugh Jackman signed onto the project, the threequel transformed into something much more sentimental for Feige.
“When Hugh came on board, it became very emotional on a personal level for me, because my Marvel career absolutely started 26 years ago in pre-production on the first X-Men film,” Feige continued. “I was apart of X-Men 1 and X-Men 2, and really the first three to a certain extent, before we had the honor and privilege of becoming Marvel Studios and developing the MCU. I had not seen Hugh in a while and certainly had not thought about Wolverine or the X-Men as something that we could do ourselves for many, many years.”
With less than one month to go, Feige is itching for fans to get to experience what looks to be a celebration of multiple decades of Marvel on the big screen.
“We’re very proud of it. The entire thing is just as gory and just as foul-mouthed and just as R-Rated as you would expect, but it is also extremely endearing and emotional,” Feige added. “I think people are going to leave excited to go and watch it again.”
Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on July 26th.
