Deadpool & Wolverine Director Reveals What Part of Making Sequel Was Most Fun

Shawn Levy prized self-awareness while crafting this crossover.

Deadpool & Wolverine‘s director revealed what ended up being the most fun during the movie. Shawn Levy knows people love the slight gore and bad words in a Deadpool film. But, the filmmaker told The Finanaical Times that “self-awareness” is the most fun while filming the sequel. A lot has been said on social media about Disney possibly changing the movie and making the tone different from the first two Deadpool films. (Early reactions to footage from fans has quickly disproved this notion.) But, with that irreverent tone still clearly rolling along, the ability to critique anything and everything in the MCU and beyond. Levy thinks that freedom is something that sets these movies apart from other superhero entries.

“People think of the R rating, the very foul language and audacious violence, but what’s really the most fun about making Deadpool is the self-awareness,” Levy muses. “He is literally turning and talking to the audience and commenting on culture, Hollywood and the movie itself. That opens up lanes of comedy that are a blast because you get to talk shit about everything.”

“Male friendship is one of the central themes of Deadpool & Wolverine — the question of how grown men connect, bond, communicate,” he added. “And if you’re Deadpool and Wolverine, sometimes it’s through stabbings.”  

Deadpool & Wolverine Ended Up Hinging On Hugh Jackman

Deadpool 3 has been in the works for a long time now. Originally, Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy couldn’t quite crack the story. But, the duo ended up getting saved by Hugh Jackman deciding to come back as Wolverine. From there, everything actually started clicking into place. During a recent stop on the press tour, Reynolds recounted the story of how long it took to get to Deadpool & Wolverine. Apparently, Logan was the secret sauce that made the movie work. Kevin Feige heard that Jackman asked to come back and approved the idea almost immediately. (All he wanted was Wolverine in the yellow suit apparently.)

“I had met Kevin Feige six years ago to discuss this, and the first thing I said to him, ‘I just want to make Wolverine and Deadpool together. I just want these two together on screen.’ At the time, Kevin said, ‘Forget it. It’s never going to happen,'” Reynolds shared. “And I said, ‘Okay, that’s fine.’ As we marched inexorably forward, Shawn and I were coming up with different pitches and different ideas, and we pitched Marvel everything you could imagine — little movies, big movies, anything — and it wasn’t working out.”

“And then one day, we were on our last pitch. We were about to say to Kevin Feige, ‘I think we’re going to walk away and we’ll come back later, maybe in a couple years, when we have a better sense of things.’ And Hugh happened to call me,” The star continued. “Shawn and I just pivoted in the middle of our pitch to Kevin and said, ‘Look, this thing just happened. It seems kind of miraculous. Hugh called me, what do you say?’ And for some reason, Kevin immediately said yes.”

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